Rangers vs Fenerbahce: Jose Mourinho will have 'few tricks up his sleeve' for Europa League clash, says Leon Balogun
Barry Ferguson's side have a 3-1 lead from the first leg in Istanbul; second leg to take place at Ibrox on Thursday; the winners will face Roma or Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals; watch Celtic vs Rangers on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, from 11.30am
Monday 10 March 2025 22:17, UK
Rangers defender Leon Balogun is expecting Jose Mourinho to have "a few tricks up his sleeve" when they face Fenerbahce in the second leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.
The Ibrox side have a 3-1 lead from last week's game in Istanbul, with the winner set to face Roma or Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals of the competition.
Balogun, who came off the bench in the first half of the first-leg, believes they can perform even better at home but he is also expecting to face a much-improved side on Thursday night.
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"I think it's far from over," he told Sky Sports News. "It was a really good result, a very good performance.
"But it's Mourinho. I'm sure he will have a few tricks up his sleeve. I'm sure he wouldn't have been happy at all after the tie over there.
"But I think there's loads of confidence for us to take from the previous performance and I think that we can probably still up our game a little bit as well in terms of on the ball."
'Ibrox crowd can inspire Rangers'
Rangers have stumbled at home in recent weeks, losing their last three games, but Balogun still believes the Ibrox crowd will be key as they look to make up for a dismal season domestically.
"The situation domestically is the way it is. There's no way to sugar coat it, it's bad," the defender added.
"Therefore it's even nicer to have a game like Fenerbahce coming up now, with the chance of going through to the next round.
"The Ibrox factor is always massive for us, especially in those games.
"I think that's what brought us through many games. Leipzig, Dortmund - I will never forget those games my whole life, they were unbelievable.
"If we perform well, we feed off each other, the fans feed off us, we feed off them, and that creates quite an intimidating environment.
"We can be very confident going into the game, just based on the result we achieved over there last week.
"But again, we have to look at this game almost thinking that we start from scratch again to make sure that we really see it through."
