It's crunch time in the Champions League on Wednesday as four teams attempt to secure the two remaining tickets into the knockout stage of Europe's top club competition.
PARIS: It's crunch time in the Champions League on Wednesday as four teams attempt to secure the two remaining tickets into the knockout stage of Europe's top club competition.
With Spanish giants Barcelona already qualified as group E leaders and German champions Stuttgart out of contention at the bottom of the pile, Rangers and six-time French champions Lyon are left to scrape it out at Ibrox for second place.
Rangers need only to avoid defeat against Lyon to book a place alongside their domestic league rivals Celtic in the last 16, but Walter Smith will hope for a repeat performance of their impressive 3-0 win over Alain Perrin's men at the Gerland stadium in October and has no intention of sending his side out to secure a draw.
Smith said: "I don't know how you'd set out to play for a draw. Never in my whole career as a manager have I considered trying to play for a draw so I won't change now.
"If you set your team out to simply avoid defeat what would happen if you lost a goal in the last minute? Obviously the draw suits us, but we will approach the game like any other and try our best to win."
Lyon's preparation for the do-or-die game was far from perfect showing some defensive frailties as they lost to eighth-placed Caen 1-0 in the domestic league on Saturday under the watchful eyes of Smith, who had made the trip to size up his opponents.
In contrast, Rangers were allowed to postpone their Scottish Premier League fixture against Gretna on Sunday and will be fresh for the encounter.
Despite Rangers' 3-2 defeat away at Stuttgart in October, Gers boss Smith believes the nature of Wednesday's fixture will help concentrate minds against a Lyon team very capable of dashing his side's qualification hopes.
"We have to make sure that the levels of concentration are as high as they possibly can be," he told the League Managers' Association website.
"Against Stuttgart they weren't and I don't know whether it was just because of the fact that we had a margin of error there or that it didn't matter if we won, lost or drew the game, as long as Lyon took a point against Barcelona we were always going to go to the last game anyway.
"So I don't know whether that was the case because over the European campaign the attitude and levels of concentration have been terrific.
"The one thing that the Stuttgart game did show was that if we do slip a little bit then teams will definitely take advantage of that."
There's nothing to play for in Group F apart from pride as English champions Manchester United and Italian giants Roma have already booked their spots in the knockout stage qualifying first and second respectively.
The two teams will face each other in the group's ultimate match in the Italian capital and officials will be looking to avoid a repeat of last season's violence when a number of United fans were taken to hospital after clashing with Italian police outside Rome's Olympic stadium.
Sir Alex Ferguson's Red Devils go into the game on a high having used bottom of the Premier league table, Derby, for target practice at the weekend, winning 4-1, while Roma slipped up in the Italian championship drawing 1-1 with lowly Livorno.
In group G, Serie A leaders Inter have already clinched top spot leaving Turks Fenerbahce, on eight points, and Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven, on seven points, to fight for the runners-up spot.
The Turkish champions have the more favourable tie as they play host to bottom of the group CSKA Moscow while PSV welcome Inter in a bid to advance to the next phase.
Arsenal and Sevilla have both booked their tickets out of Group H and into the last sixteen. However Wednesday's ties will decide who qualifies top of the group.
Sevilla, who enjoyed a comfortable 3-1 win over Murcia on Sunday in the Spanish League, are group leaders on 12 points
but have to make the away trip to Slavia Prague.
Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, who suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season when they were beaten 2-1 by Middlesbrough on Sunday, are just two points behind the Spaniards in second place as they prepare to welcome Steaua Bucharest at the Emirates stadium.
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