Rangers v Athletic Bilbao: Back Valverde's visitors to triumph & Williams to hit the target at 7/2

• Rangers without a clean sheet under Barry Ferguson

• Nico Williams looks the big danger for Bilbao

• Back a Bilbao win on the road at Rangers at 1/12.00

Watch Football...Only Bettor midweek special

Rangers v Athletic Bilbao
Thursday 10 April, 20:00 kick-off
Live on TNT Sports 2 & Discovery+

With the Scottish title all-but gone, this is it now for Rangers, as Barry Ferguson's side host Athletic Bilbao in the first leg as big 21/103.10 outsiders against a side sitting in fourth spot in La Liga.

You could be forgiven for forgetting that Rangers made it all the way to the Europa League final just three years ago, but while eventually beating Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce was a great scalp, losing the second leg 2-0 at Ibrox to require penalties was far from ideal.

Also far from ideal is that Ferguson has not seen a clean sheet yet in his seven games in charge, which have been full of goals. Both teams have scored in six of those seven, which have averaged just over four goals per game.

Bilbao are 10/34.33 joint-favourites to win the Europa League alongside Man Utd, and by contrast there's been just one goal total in their last three games, although goals have come more freely in this competition.

The Spaniards are 1/31.33 to qualify from this tie, and 11/102.11 to win this first leg in Glasgow.

Over 2.5 goals is priced up at 9/101.90 but much will depend on how Rangers start this game, as an early Athletic goal would play right into the hands of the visitors - who will try to dominate the ball and control the game at their pace.

I can see Rangers struggling in this one, but such has been the goals in their games you couldn't rule out them scoring a goal, but it's one of those where the first goal is so crucial it could decide how the entire game goes.

And since there's enough juice in the price of 1/12.00 for Bilbao to win that's probably the best bet of the outrights.

Back Nico Williams for shots on target

Inaki Williams is the top scorer for Bilbao in the Europa League this season with five goals, and is 11/53.20 anytime scorer at Ibrox, but his brother Nico Williams presents more value with just one less goal at four but a bigger price at 7/24.50

There's also more value in backing Nico Williams to have 2+ shots on target at 7/24.50 as his stats in this field are slgithly better than his brothers but again he's a better price.

Nico has 21 attempts at goal with nine shots on target in the Europa League, while Inaki has more attempts (23) but fewer hitting the target (six) so it makes sense to lean towards Nico.

And Nico Williams also comes out on top with three multiple shot games in nine Europa League starts, and with his pace and power he'll be a real handful for Rangers to deal with.

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