PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Young Boys star Fred says Midtjylland mates warned him Gerrard’s men have learned to play like him – hard and fast
FREDERIK SORENSEN revealed his Midtjylland mates have given him the lowdown on Rangers after Steven Gerrard’s men destroyed the Danes in their Europa League qualifier. And he reckons the Light Blues are a team in the mould of their boss after the Young Boys stopper watched them romp to a 7-3 aggregate win over his countrymen. Sorensen is wary of the Ibrox side’s threat with the Swiss champs under pressure to get the win after defeat to Porto in their Group G opener. Rangers, meanwhile, kicked off with a victory over Feyenoord and are looking to follow that up by taking something from tonight’s clash in Wankdorf. Gerrard has lost just two of his 23 games in Europe as Gers boss but faces arguably his toughest test yet on Young Boys’ plastic pitch where they are unbeaten in almost a year. But Sorensen, who had spells with Juventus and is on loan from German side Cologne, said: “I watched Rangers against Midjtylland and they have become very aggressive.
“I know Gerrard of course and maybe the team have his mentality on the pitch. I have friends who play for Midjtylland and I talked with them.
“They said Rangers had a good mentality, a classic British team who come with a mentality and lot of physicality. We know we have to that way.
“I have never played against Scottish opposition before but it is going to be a great game and we are looking forward to it.”
Sorensen, who also had spells with Bologna and Hellas Verona in Serie A, admitted he watched Scottish football growing up in Scandinavia and was a fan of Gers’ Great Danes Brian Laudrup and Peter Lovenkrands.
The 27-year-old said: “When I was young I watched a lot of Scottish football, a lot of Premiership. I also watched the Old Firm game several times.
“I watched Laudrup but also Lovenkrands who I know is now back at Rangers and coach of the youth team.”
Rangers don’t have any fans travelling officially to the Swiss capital after refusing their ticket allocation following UEFA’s punishment for sectarian singing in recent Euro ties but there will be a smattering of away supporters in the stadium after Young Boys sold briefs to some Gers punters in a neutral section of the ground.
Home fans have been snapping up tickets and the match is close to a 30,000 sell-out and Gers will have to overcome a partisan home crowd.
But the biggest advantage for Young Boys will be their plastic pitch – one of three in the Swiss Super League – where they haven’t lost in almost a year and defeated Juventus 2-1 in the Champions League last season.
Despite that Gerrard and his players opted not to train on the synthetic surface with a morning session at the Hummel Training Centre ahead of the flight to nearby Basel airport.
Young Boys boss Gerardo Seoane said of the pitch: “Of course it’s usually an advantage to play at home and Rangers are not accustomed to playing on artificial turf.
“For Young Boys it’s certainly not a disadvantage but there are other things that will be important to win.
“One of them is the attitude you take to the field.
“Rangers will have their reason why they decided not to train on the pitch but I can’t judge or comment on what other teams do.”
Seoane is aware of the Gers’ threat on the counter attack and admitted he was impressed by their performance in the win over Feyenoord last month. The 40-year-old said: “I realise that Rangers play very well on the counter attack.
“Young Boys will have to keep the ball well and not give the Rangers strikers the opportunity to counter attack as fast as they can.
“Of course we have other plans of how we will play but I’m not going to reveal everything. I was impressed in the Feyenoord game by both teams, Rangers and Feyenoord.
“I saw high intensity, a lot of tackling but it will be different this time because Rangers are playing away. I want Rangers to feel this.
“We have to play our game. We would like Rangers not to
I know Gerrard and maybe the team have his mentality FREDERIK SORENSEN
be able to play their game. This will be important.
“It’s a very good group. We are playing in a group in which every team would like to belong to the Champions League.
“We have seen that Porto have been very strong in last few years. Porto are the ones to be on top of the table at the end but that’s not that important. What’s important is this game.”
Young Boys have suffered horror injury luck with up to eight players struggling to make the Gers clash.
But Seoane is hopeful three – Ivorian striker Roger Assale, Cameroon midfielder Moumi Ngamaleu and former France frontman Guillaume Hoarau – will all make it.
He said: “Yes we have a few injures. I’m not going to talk about players who are heavily injured but there are three players who are questionable for this game – Hoarau, Assale and Ngamaleu – but I hope one or two of them will be able to play.
“We have had so many games in the last few weeks we have not had that many practices.
“It’s a question of having good exchanges with medical staff and we have to take care of what happens during the game.
“There are some players who have had to play a lot in the last couple of weeks so I am trying to manage that as well as possible.”