Europa League
2025-09-25 - Rangers vs Genk
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: UEFA Europa League
Thursday 25th September 2025 - Kick Off 8pm
This game is live on TV
Rangers
The pressure has continued to intensify around new manager Russell Martin, even if the Rangers board are still steadfast in backing him. The 2-0 win over Hibernian in the Scottish League Cup has offered some respite from the criticism raining down on Martin, but that will all pick up again if Rangers are to make a poor start in the Europa League.
Two Qualifying ties were won in the Champions League to reach the Play Off Round, but Rangers were humbled by Club Brugge with heavy defeats at home and away. In recent years, Rangers have found plenty of positive form in the Europa League, but the early season form under Russell Martin has been downright embarrassing.
Rangers might have won last weekend, but they are 11th in the Scottish Premiership table and had previously won none of 5 games in all competitions and suffered 3 defeats. They had not scored in the previous two games at Ibrox where Rangers had drawn the Old Firm derby and then been beaten by upstarts Hearts, although that victory over Hibs will help.
Genk
Last season they ended the Belgian regular season as 'Champions' and that earned Genk a return to the Europa League. However, they were to able to compete with the two Champions League representatives, Club Brugge and Union Saint-Gilloise and that meant missing out on a spot in the top European competition.
A win over Lech Poznan in the Europa League Play Off Round has taken Genk into the League Phase, but they were not able to make the Knock Out Rounds of the Conference League two seasons ago. 2023/24 was a campaign that saw Genk begin in the Champions League, but slip down the three UEFA competitions and eventually saw them finish 3rd in the old format in the Conference League, but the side have won at Lech Poznan this season.
Much like the hosts, Genk have made a really poor start to the new season and they are sitting at the wrong end of the early Belgian standings. They were beaten by Champions Union Saint-Gilloise 1-2 this past weekend and Genk have lost 3 of their last 5 games in all competitions and picked up a single win in that time.
Head to Head
This is the first competitive meeting between the clubs.
Prediction
Both of these teams would have come into the new season with serious ambitions, but both Rangers and Genk have been massive disappointments so far.
There is a huge amount of unrest at Ibrox and Russell Martin is taking the brunt of the criticism.
Most fans know the board have not been up to task, but the results are still pretty horrific which has placed plenty of emphasis on the new manager. A lot of buzzwords are being thrown around by Martin, but results mean more and Rangers will have welcomed the 2-0 win over Hibernian last weekend.
Building on that is the key and they are facing an out of form Genk team.
3 losses in 5 games has left Genk scrambling and they were not involved in European Football at all last season. Two seasons ago they failed to have any impact in UEFA competition, but the 1-5 win at Lech Poznan in the Europa League Play Off Round Qualifying tie will give them confidence.
Genk should also take plenty of belief from the way Club Brugge steamrolled Rangers last month in a 9-1 aggregate win.
That includes a comfortable 1-3 win at Ibrox so there has to be a huge amount of respect for a team that finished above Club Brugge in the Belgian regular season last time around.
The first goal is likely to be huge in this fixture- you can imagine the team conceding will have a severe dent to an already fragile confidence.
Playing at home has not meant a lot to Rangers under Russell Martin, but they have beaten Panathinaikos and Viktoria Plzen here under the UEFA banner. That will help the home players as they try and get the supporters behind them and Rangers may do just enough to sneak out back to back victories to ease the pressure around the manager.
The Pick :
Rangers 1-0 Genk
