Get to know Rangers FC, Athletic Club's Europa League quarter-final opponents

Another intense European duel for Athletic Club. The Zurigorri will take on Rangers FC in a bid to advance to the UEFA Europa League semi-finals, the last hurdle before Bilbao hosts the showpiece on May 21.

There is no doubt this will be a tough tie for the Lions. The second-most decorated side in Scottish football history, the Gers have won a total of 118 trophies since their foundation in 1872.

Match Info

First leg

Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

Thursday April 10, 21:00 CEST (20:00 BST)

Second leg

San Mames, Bilbao

Thursday April 17, 21:00 CEST

The Opponents 

Initially established in 1872 by four founder members in Glasgow's West End Park (now Kelvingrove Park), Rangers FC - nicknamed 'The Gers', 'The Light Blues' or 'The Teddy Bears' - are the fourth oldest club in Scotland.

Their ‘Royal Blue’ home shirts are a symbol of the club's attachment to the British Royal Family and the United Kingdom. Curiously. Rangers have two official crests. One contains the overlapping letters 'RFC', and this typically features on their playing kit, while the other (shown above), used for official communications and merchandise, contains a 'lion rampant', surrounded by the club's name, with the word 'ready' - coming from their official motto 'Aye Ready' - below the lion symbol.

Rangers are one of the most decorated clubs in the history of football, mainly thanks to their domestic achievements, which include 55 League titles, 34 Scottish FA Cups and 28 League Cups. In Europe, they won the 1972 Cup Winners' Cup in 1972. In addition to finishing runners-up in that competition on two occasions (1960/61 and 1966/67), they've also taken silver medals twice in the UEFA Cup/Europa League (2007/08 and 2021/22).

Their rivalry with fellow Glaswegians Celtic FC (known as the Old Firm or Glasgow Derby) is widely recognised as one of the most intense derbies in world football due to its social, religious and political undertones.

A financial crisis saw the original club being liquidated in 2012, but a new entity was formed almost immediately afterwards adopting the same name and keeping the same structures. The new organisation was forced to restart life in the Scottish fourth division, but three promotions in four seasons saw them back in the top division by 2016/17.

Rangers have played their home matches at Ibrox Stadium since 1899. It currently has a maximum capacity of 51,700 supporters and is considered a four-star stadium by UEFA.

The ground has witnessed two major tragedies, known as the Ibrox Disasters, which occurred in 1902 and 1971. During the first incident, 25 fans perished after the West Tribune Stand collapsed during a Scotland vs England match. In the second disaster, 66 people passed away and another 200 were injured in crowd crush as they left the stadium during an Old Firm match.
 

Europa League 2024/25:

The Gers qualified straight to the round of 16 after finishing eighth in the Group Phase with 14 points. They beat Malmo, FCSB, Nice and Union SG, drew against Tottenham Hotspur and Olympiakos, while their only defeats came against Olmpique Lyon and Manchester United.

The Scots overcame Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahçe SK to reach this stage of the competition.They beat the Turkish giants 1-3 in Istanbul and although Fenerbahçe won 0-2 at Ibrox to make it 3-3 on aggregate, the Scots were 3-2 victors in the penalty shootout.
 

Head coach:

47-year old Barry Ferguson, a former Rangers player and captain, took over from Belgian Philippe Clement in February. Other former players have joined Barry's coaching staff, such as Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor.

A central midfielder, Ferguson made 410 appearances for the Gers across two spells. He made his first-team debut in the 1996/97 campaign before fully establishing himself under Dutch coach Dick Advocaat a couple of years later and eventually becoming captain in November 2001.

In the summer of 2003, Graeme Souness signed the midfielder for Blackburn Rovers for £7.5 million. Souness made Ferguson team captain, but despite a good start, the midfielder suffered from a significant injury setback and struggled to adapt to life in England, handing in a transfer request in January 2005.

He re-signed for Rangers at the end of the window and was named captain the following season. He was also the captain when Rangers reached the 2007/08 Europa League final which they lost 2-0 to Russian side Zenit Saint Petersburg.

In 2009 he joined Birmingham City, where he was a first-team regular for two seasons, before eventually spending his final years at Blackpool, Fleetwood Town and Clyde, where he was player-coach. Barry also had spells in charge at Kelty Hearts and Alloa Athletic.

He made 45 appearances for Scotland, but was dropped from the squad in 2009 after two acts of indiscipline.
 

Standout players:

The current Rangers squad features Scotland-capped internationals in the form of centre-back John Souttar and goalkeeper Liam Kelly, while up-and-coming central midfielder Connor Barron has turned out for the under-21s.

The team contains a plethora of foreign talents including Ridvan Yilmaz (Turkey), Óscar Cortés (Colombia), Ianis Hagi (Romania), Cyriel Dessers (Nigeria), Mohamed Diomande (Ivory Coast), Tom Lawrence (Wales), Bajrami (Albania), Vaclav Cerny (Czech Republic), Hamza Igamane (Morocco) and Ross McCausland (Northern Ireland).

They also have some experienced operators such as former England international keeper Jack Butland, current captain James Tavernier, Dutch defender Robin Pröpper and Nigerian forward Leon Balogun.
 

Previous Meetings
The last, and until now, only official encounter between both teams took place in the quarter-finals of the 1968/69 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final. Rangers won the first leg 4-1 at Ibrox, with a young Sir Alex Ferguson scoring their opening goal. Athletic were 2-0 victors in Bilbao, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Gers from progressing to the final four.

We met again for a friendly held at the Estadi del FC Barcelona in August 1974, with Rangers winning 1-0.
 

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Glasgow, 'the dear green place'
Scotland's largest city and the country's main industrial hub, it's residents' 'Glaswegians' are famed for their toughness, sense of humour and work ethic.

Located in west Scotland on the River Clyde, Glasgow's city centre has a population of 600,000, while the wider urban area is inhabited by around 1.8 million people.

Much like Bilbao, shipbuilding has played a major role throughout the city's history. Culture and art have also been ever present in the region, with some of Scotland's greatest musicians, bands, actors and comedians coming from Glasgow, such as: Travis, Paolo Nutini, Lewis Capaldi, Simple Minds, Franz Ferdinand, Primal Scream, Billy Connolly, Billy Boyd, Kelly MacDonald, Robert Carlyle, Frankie Boyle, Kevin Bridges and James McAvoy, among many, many others.

In addition to Rangers and Celtic, the city is also home to top clubs like Partick Thistle and Queen's Park FC. It's also the location of Scotland's national football stadium, Hampden Park.

The city has a thriving culinary scene, apart from Scottish delicacies like haggis and cullen sink, visitors can taste food from around the world, with their being a particular abundance of asian restaurants.

Other sights worth seeing include the Glasgow Cathedral, the Mural Trail, Riverside Museum, The Glasgow Necropolis, the Botanic Gardens and Glasgow Science Centre.