Ibrox trio’s Euro boost
NEW Rangers trio Alfredo Morelos, Carlos Pena and Eduardo Herrera have all been cleared to play in the Ibrox club’s first European campaign in six years. Colombian striker Morelos was finally confirmed yesterday as Pedro Caixinha’s sixth summer signing, after the £1million capture from Finnish side HJK Helsinki joined on a
three-year deal. The 20-year-old has been registered in time to face little-known Luxembourg outfit Progres niederkorn in the first round of the Europa League qualifiers that kicks off at Ibrox next Thursday.
Morelos, who scored 17 goals in 19 games for HJK, came on for the last 20 minutes of rangers’ 1-1 closed-doors friendly with Welsh champions The new Saints yesterday.
Afterwards, he vowed to fill the goals void for a club that only scored 56 times last season in the Premiership.
‘The most important thing is that I score goals — when the opportunity is there, I score,’ said Morelos.
‘I had an excellent season in Finland. Last year was quite incredible for me. I was scoring goals in every game.
‘This is a wonderful opportunity here at rangers and I want to show the fans what I did every day in Finland.’
Morelos joins fellow new recruits Bruno Alves, ryan Jack, Fabio Cardoso, daniel Candeias and dalcio as summer arrivals at Ibrox.
neither Pena nor Herrera have officially completed their moves to Glasgow yet — but the Mexican pair have also been included in the rangers squad lodged with uEFA.
Both players have been granted work permits to play in the uK but are waiting on paperwork before jetting back to Scotland.
rangers also remain confident of signing norwich midfielder Graham dorrans and Hearts winger Jamie Walker.
One more new signing could face Progres niederkorn since uEFA allow a late wildcard addition to a club’s European squad.
rangers should encounter little difficulty in their first two European ties since being eliminated from the Europa League by Maribor in 2011.
Should Caixinha’s team progress as expected to the second round of qualifiers, they would face Cypriots AEL Limassol or St Joseph’s of Gibraltar.
And the Portuguese boss insists he will leave no stone unturned to help his new-look side go on a prolonged European adventure, saying: ‘The return of rangers to Europe is important for the club and we are going to do everything to be in the group stage.
‘This is the first step, the first level. We need to pass through it.
‘We have started to collect our information. We know they are going to have a couple of matches before we play them, so we want to be present. We want to analyse them and do our homework.’
rangers are still awaiting official confirmation of the details of the second leg in Luxembourg from uEFA.
But Caixinha was just pleased his side avoided a journey to the far side of Europe for the second match of the new season.
‘It is a benefit,’ he said. ‘It will be our first match and for the recovery process of the team, it is good not to have a long trip.’
By contrast, Aberdeen are facing the prospect of another nightmare journey after they were paired in the Europa League second qualifying round with either Kazakhstan’s Ordabasy Shymkent or Bosnian outfit Siroki Brijeg.
Two years ago, the dons travelled the longest distance in European club competition history when they lost over two legs to Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan in the third qualifying round.
And manager derek McInnes will want to avoid another gruelling 12-hour flight for the second leg of the second-round tie on July 20 after the home match at Pittodrie on July 13.
St Johnstone face Lithuanian side FK Trakai in the first round of qualifying, with the first leg at Mcdiarmid Park next Thursday.
Boss Tommy Wright is eager for a fresh European adventure after previously steering Saints to fine wins over norway’s rosenborg and Swiss side Luzern.
But he has also tasted bitter defeat in the Europa League, most notably to Armenian minnows FC Alashkert in 2015.
The plastic pitch in the LFF Stadium in Vilnius means Saints will be without veteran forward Steven MacLean, who does not play on artificial surfaces in order to protect a fragile knee.
But Wright hopes his talisman can shoot his side to a first-leg lead, with the victors facing Swedish side norrkoping or FC Prishtina of Kosovo.
‘The away leg is played on an artificial surface, which isn’t ideal, but apparently it is good quality,’ said Wright, who plans to watch Trakai’s Lithuanian Cup clash with Garliava on Sunday.
‘Macca will probably want to play but we have to deal with it.
‘We have handled it before in Scotland. I will just tell him to make sure he bangs in a couple of goals in the home leg.’