Rangers progressed safely into the next round of the Europa League by beating Lincoln Red Imps 5-0 at the Victoria Stadium.

Kyle Goldwin was the only change in William’s side with the Gibraltarian replacing Lolo Soler, new signing Tjay De Barr made the bench while Steven Gerrard made seven changes.

Imps were made to worry early on after Scott Wiseman pulled up after making a run down the right but the Gibraltar international was able to continue after receiving medical treatment.

James Tavernier scored a lovely free-kick to open the scoring for Rangers on the 20th minute and doubled their lead just before half-time through Connor Goldson’s header.

Goldwin made a couple of good saves early in the second half to keep the score at 2-0 and were unlucky not to pull a goal back after Roy Chipolina’s close-range shot was saved by Allan McGregor.

Alfredo Morelos and Jermain Defoe would come off the bench to get onto the scoresheet with the former bagging a brace. Rangers saw the game out with ease and will now face Dutch side Willem II.

With less than a week to go until Lincoln plays Rangers in the Victoria Stadium – FG spoke to Scott Wiseman about their UEL tie, Gibraltar’s win over San Marino and more.

The 34-year old made his debut in Lincoln’s win over Union Titus Petange then followed it up with a victory in the UEFA Nations League against San Marino after a four-year absence from international football.

After Lincoln’s 2-0 win yesterday against Union Titus Petange, we caught up with midfielder Graeme Torrilla, to talk about his return to playing after serious injury, his thoughts on the match and more.

Photo (C) Lincoln / Neil Wilson

Torrilla suffered a serious injury playing for Mons Calpe back in April 2019, and yesterday was his first game since then – how did it feel for him to play once again, and for 90 minutes? “It felt great to be back on the pitch after being out for so long, especially for such an important game for the club & coming away with a win to top it off.”

Lincoln, especially in the second half, were in control of the game and could have won by more than two, with a bit of luck – does the midfielder agree that the team got their game plan spot on? “I think we managed the game perfectly, we knew they were a team who liked to keep possession so we let them play in the areas of the pitch that wouldn’t cause us much problems & then took full advantage when we had chances to attack.”

Lincoln signed Torrilla while he was recovering from his injury, and gave him the chance to recover before giving him his debut in the match yesterday – how grateful is the 22-year-old to his new employers for giving him that chance? “I mentioned it when I first signed for the club, that I was grateful for the opportunity & was looking to repay them in the future. Even though it was my first game here I think it’s a great start to what hopefully will be a great season for both myself & the club.”

Lincoln could draw some big teams in the main path of the 2nd Qualifying Round, including the likes of Tottenham, AC Milan and Wolfsburg – any preferences for Torrilla in the draw? “I wouldn’t say there’s a big preference as I’d love the chance to play one of the big teams like Milan or Spurs, but coming up against one of the weaker sides at home would give us a great opportunity to progress into the next round.”

William Amaral de Andrade will be hoping to finally get his managerial debut underway as Lincoln Red Imps take on Union Titus Petange in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

After last week’s fiasco with Prishtina, Lincoln’s forfeit win saw them progress and set up a tie against the side from Luxembourg at the Victoria Stadium.

FG understands Lincoln are at full strength with the players raring to go. Last week’s lineups saw Scott Wiseman, Jack Sergeant and Graeme Torrilla look set to make their competitive debuts and you would expect William to name the same side.

The 2020-21 campaign is UT Petange’s first-ever in the UEFA Europa League. The Luxembourg side finished 4th last season and qualified after their league was cancelled due to Covid-19, the same decision taken in Gibraltar also.

Petange’s season started last weekend with a 2-0 win over FC UNA Strassen thanks to goals from Mounir Hamzaoui and Robert Maah.

Betting:

Lincoln goes into the game as slight underdogs at 7/4, with Union Titus Petange currently 23/20 to qualify in 90 minutes. The betting seems to favour goals being on the card, with Over 2.5 goals being a 4/6 shot, while if you fancy Lincoln to be leading at half time and win the game, that is currently 7/2.

Predicted lineups:

Lincoln XI – Soler; Wiseman, R.Chipolina, Lopes, Britto; Sergeant, Yahaya, Torrilla; Kike, L.Casciaro, Hernandez

Petange XI – Ottele; Hamzaoui, Kodjia, Hauguel, Lauriente; Kakoko, Kabore, El Hamzaoui; Teixeira, Gashi, Maah

The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body have awarded Lincoln a 3-0 forfeit win over Prishtina and will now face Union Titus Pétange of Luxembourg.

After last week’s fiasco which saw Lincoln’s UEFA Europa League tie with Prishtina cancelled on two occassions and countless attempts from the away team to turn heads in regard of the outcome – the Imps have finally been awarded the win.

In a statement by Dylan Viagas, the Lincoln president said:

“Although it has been a nerve-wrecking weekend, deep down, we were confident that UEFA was going to rule in our favour. We could not really see how this could not be the case.

We regret having to progress to the next round in this manner as we would have wanted to have done it in the field of play. The team was well prepared and the players were highly motiviated to do the job.

With the current situation of Covid-19, this has been a steep learning curve, not only for the club, but we are sure for UEFA aswell.

As far as the club is concerned, we have put this saga behind us now and it’s all hands-on deck to prepare for Thursday’s game against Union Titus Petange from Luxemburg.

The club wants to publicy thank the Local Authorities (GoG, Public Health, GSLA, Gibraltar FA) and the local media for all their support and advice during this last week.”

Lincoln Red Imps will now welcome Union Titus Pétange to the Victoria Stadium this Thursday.