Refreshed /Edouard ready for Riga

● Dutch club may be playing in Europe for the first time in 15 years but their star midfielder Saglam is in no doubt that they can beat Rangers in their Europa League single-leg qualifier

Odsonne Edouard arrives at Glasgow airport yesterday as Celtic prepared to fly ou to Latvia for their Champions League play-off tie against Riga.

The French striker is expected to lead the line for the Parkhead side after surprisingly being rested for Saturday’s 3-2 Premiership victory at Livingston.

Afterwards Celtic manager Neil Lennon insisted Edouard had been tired and was being saved for tomorrow night.

“He was away with France recently and played two 90 minutes with them” said Lennon. “He had missed the previous three games for us before that.

“I spoke to him on Friday and he was struggling so you have to look after the player.

“Hopefully he will be fresh for Thursday which is a very important game for us.”

Also tomorrow, Rangers face Dutch side Willem II in the Europa League third qualifying round, while Aberdeen play Sporting Lisbon in Portugal and Motherwell are in Israel to play Hapoel Be’er Sheva.

Willem II midfielder Gorkem Saglam has insisted the Dutch underdogs won’t be fazed by the reputation of either Rangers or their manager Steven Gerrard in tomorow night’s Europa League third qualifying round tie.

Rangers are odds-on favourites to beat the unfashionable Eredivisie side at the Koning Willem II Stadium in Tilburg and book a play-off round tie at home to either Galatasaray or Hajduk Split next week.

The Ibrox club are bidding to get into the group stage of the Europa League for a third consecutive season under Gerrard, having lost just five of their 33 matches in the competition since the former Liverpool and England captain took charge in 2018.

Willem II have little in the way of a European pedigree, having won just one tie in their four previous seasons in any of the major continental club competitions since making their de but with a 7-2 aggregate defeat by Manchester United in the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963.

This season they are in Europe for the first time in 15 years, courtesy of their fifth-placed finish in the cur tailed 2019-20 E red iv isie campaign.

But German under-20 international Saglam, pictured below, one of the stand-out players for Willem II so far this season, believes they can spring a surprise in the single-leg qualifier.

“Nothing is impossible, also against Rangers and against Steven Gerrard as a coach,” said Saglam. “So we will do our best.

“I’m very excited about the game. These European games are even more exciting because they are something different for us. Maybe you will only ever play once against R angers and this is the time for us now.

“It will be one of the hardest games we will ever have because I think they are physically very strong. Teams from the Scottish league are always physical.

“We will have to be at our best but we have to focus on ourselves, not that much on R angers, because we also have so much quality.”

S ag lam has scored in each of Will em I I’ s last two matches, the

5-0 win over

Progres Niederkorn in Luxembourg in the Europa League last Thursday and in Sunday’s 4-0 Eredivisie victory at home to Heracles.

The 22 year old has also provided assists for Greek international striker Vangelis Pavlidis, who has scored braces in each of those games and has been singled out as the potential danger man from Rangers’ perspective by Gerrard.

Saglam, who joined Willem II from German side VFL Bochum earlier this year, feels they now have important momentum behind them after kicking off the season with a 2- 0 defeat away to Heerenveen.

“The whole team is feeling great right now ,” he told Will em I I’ s official Youtube channel.

“It’s been a good week. For most of us, it was the first time we have played a European game.

“It was important to get good results this week. The result in the first league game against Heerenveen was not that good.

“But against Niederkorn we had a good shape and you saw on Sunday (against Heracles) we were fit. We scored beautiful goals in the second half.

“It was my first goal for Willem II (against Niederkorn) and my first European goal. I’ve made assists also, so it has been such a beautiful week.”

Willem II struggled in a goalless first half against Heracles before producing some fluent football and sharp finishing after the break.

“I would not describe the first half as wrong, because it was a tough game,” said Saglam.

“We didn’t concede a goal. We played well defensively and offensively in the second half, we were compact and it was a well -deserved win.”

“We will have to be at our best but we have to focus on ourselves, not that much on Rangers, because we also have so much quality”

GORKEM SAGLAM