The UEFA Europa League round of 32 draw, held back in December, threw up some extremely interesting fixtures.
In a flash, two months have sped by, and these clashes are already upon us.
One of the most interesting battles to come out of the draw was Borussia Dortmund’s tie against Scottish champions Rangers.
The Gers have performed astonishingly well in previous Europa League campaigns under the current Aston Villa boss, Steven Gerrard.
Still, there were questions about whether the new manager, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, could continue this excellent run.
On Thursday evening, Rangers made the trip to the Signal Iduna Park to take on Marco Rose’s Dortmund in the first leg and utterly blew the German side out of the water, winning 4-2 to take into the second leg in just a week’ time.
Rose has been under fire recently following some inconsistent performances, and yet another trouncing has certainly not helped ease the pressure on his shoulders.
But what tactics were applied by van Bronckhorst to help Rangers come away with a memorable win against the Bundesliga giants?
This article will be a tactical analysis of the entertaining Europa League mid-week affair.
It will be an analysis of the key tactical elements of the match which led to the shocking end result.
Lineups And Formations
Rose named an unchanged lineup for this crucial European tie from the one that easily disposed of Union Berlin on Sunday in a 3-0 victory.
The 4-2-3-1 base formation remained in place as well against Rangers.
