Rangers have withdrawn their request to postpone their Scottish Premiership visit to St Mirren should they reach the Champions League play-off round.
Russell Martin’s side are strong favourites to progress past Viktoria Plzen as they go into Tuesday’s away leg of their third qualifying round tie with a 3-0 lead.
Rangers had indicated they might want a blank weekend as it falls between the first and second legs against either Salzburg Austria or Club Brugge should they progress.
But the Scottish Professional Football League has announced that: “Following further discussions with Rangers, St Mirren and relevant stakeholders, we can confirm that Rangers have withdrawn their request.”
Raskin started the first three games of Rangers’ season, but was left out of the starting XI for the first leg of the tie against Viktoria Plzen, which Martin’s side won 3-0 at Ibrox.
The 24-year-old was again benched for Saturday’s Premiership match against Dundee, but impressed as a substitute in the 1-1 draw.
Martin expressed his delight at how Raskin has responded to being dropped.
“He came out of the team for reasons that me and him spoke about, and his reaction has been top, like really, really brilliant,” he said.
“He’s a really fantastic player, and he’s a young man that I’m getting to know all the time, and actually I really like his character and personality.
“It’s my job to make sure, playing for this football club, whoever you are, the demands are really clear, in whatever position you play.”
Saturday’s draw was particularly galling to Rangers fans considering Dundee arrived with a poor start to their season heaping pressure on their new head coach, former Rangers defender Steven Pressley.
Dundee, who managed just two attempts on goal in their opening Premiership defeat at home to Hibernian, had not beaten Rangers in their previous 17 meetings and had lost their latest 19 visits to Ibrox.
The passing style being adopted under Martin meant centre-half John Souttar attempted 131 passes in this game, the highest of any player in the opening two weekends, the team overall attempted 709, again the highest of any team, and their 20 goal attempts were highest too.
Yet they still relied on a penalty to rescue a draw and have now failed to win both of their opening two league matches for the first time since 1989.
Martin could understand the reaction of the home support.
“The fans have lacked the success they want for quite some time, so I understand the frustration,” he said. “I didn’t get too high on Tuesday, so we’re not going to get too low today.
“We are at a point now at this club where something needed to change.
“The ownership has changed, there’s a new coaching staff, there’s new players, there’s hopefully a new way of behaving in the training ground – properly, every single day, regarding standards and what’s expected at this football club. So it’s not a quick fix and this is not me coming out and making excuses.
“I think we change the manager from year to year and nothing really changes.
“So now it’s about really changing the culture and the feel of the club day in and day out. That will end up in a good outcome. Good process, good people, will always end up in a good outcome. But maybe not so quickly as everyone wants.”
Rangers head coach Russell Martin talks to BBC Scotland about his decision to leave out captain James Tavernier and midfielder Nicolas Raskin for the Champions League qualifier against Viktoria Plzen.
Before Motherwell found their late equaliser, former Rangers midfielder Derek Ferguson has expressed deep concern about his old side’s approach.
“At the moment there’s nothing coming from Rangers; it’s quite worrying,” he said on BBC Sportsound. “I’ve not got a clue what their tactic is. I don’t see it.”
After Motherwell netted the leveller their play more than merited, Ferguson added: “I’ve got a real worry after watching that second half. They players still have a lot to prove to that Rangers support.”
Speaking on Sky Sports, irate former Rangers striker Kris Boyd said: “It’s the same things that keep happening time after time after time.
“It’s early in the season. We know there are going to be players arriving. We know there are going to be players going out. But the alarming thing for is he’s calling them out so early on.”
Despite agreeing with Martin, former Celtic forward Chris Sutton was also taken aback by the Rangers boss’ comments, saying the remarks “were extreme”.
“For him to for him to do that first game of the season, he sees him every day in training, he must think they’re rank rotten,” he said on Sky Sports.
“Because why wouldn’t there be a bit more balance there? When have you ever seen a manager do that first game of the season? That was extreme as extreme.”
Nathan Eovaldi limited the Angels to a run in seven innings, Adolis García hit a two-run homer in the eighth and the Texas Rangers beat the Angels 6-3 on Wednesday night.
Eovaldi (9-3) helped the Rangers avoid a series sweep and snap the Angels’ three-game winning streak. He allowed six hits and struck out four.
Marcus Semien was three for five with an RBI and two runs. He doubled and opened the scoring on Wyatt Langford’s single in the fourth, and had an RBI single in the sixth. Langford was two for five with a double.
Robert Garcia pitched the ninth for his ninth save.
José Soriano (7-8) pitched seven innings for the Angels, giving up two runs, one of which was unearned, while striking out seven.
Luis Rengifo tied it, 1-1, with an RBI single in the fourth.
García broke hit open in the eighth with his 15th home run of the season, and Texas tacked on two more runs to pull away.
Nolan Schanuel hit a two-run homer for the Angels in the eighth. Corey Seager extended his majors-best on-base streak to 29 games in the ninth with a single to right.
Key moment
García’s eighth-inning homer gave Texas breathing room.
Key stat
Eovaldi allowed just one run.
Up next
Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson (2-6, 4.41) is scheduled to start at home Friday night against the Chicago White Sox.
Pinch-hitter Yoán Moncada keyed a four-run sixth inning with a two-run single and Gustavo Campero also drove in two runs as the Angels beat the Texas Rangers 8-5 on Tuesday night.
Texas took a 4-3 lead with two runs in the sixth, one scoring on Ezequiel Duran’s RBI single and the other on an error. But two walks by Rangers reliever Jon Gray opened the door for the Angels in the bottom half.
Campero tied it when he doubled to shallow left-center, with Texas center fielder Sam Haggerty coming up short on his attempt at a sliding catch. Moncada lined his two-out single to right for a 6-4 lead, and Zach Neto doubled to make it 7-4.
The Rangers outhit the Angels 14-6. Kyle Higashioka had three hits, including solo homers in the fourth and eighth for his sixth career multihomer game. He scored three times.
Both benches and bullpens emptied briefly in the bottom of the eighth after Rangers reliever Shawn Armstrong hit Neto and Mike Trout with pitches, prompting an angry exchange between Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery and Texas manager Bruce Bochy. No punches were thrown.
Angels left-hander Reid Detmers struck out two in a scoreless seventh, and Kenley Jansen worked a scoreless ninth for his 20th save. Jansen has not given up an earned run in 17 consecutive appearances, the longest active streak by an American League pitcher and tying the longest such streak of his career.
Texas starter Patrick Corbin shook off a 30-pitch, two-run first to complete five innings. He gave up three runs — two earned — and three hits.
Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi gave up four runs, three earned, and 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Rangers right fielder Adolis García, who dropped a routine fly that led to an Angels run in the fourth, robbed Nolan Schanuel of a two-run homer with a leaping catch to end the fifth, keeping the score 3-2.
Rangers “will understand that it is not easy to play in Athens”, says Pananthinaikos head coach Rui Vitoria as the Greek side attempt to turn around a two-goal deficit to progress in Champions League qualifying.
The Greek side dominated for 50 minutes at Ibrox but failed to convert a host of chances before goals from Findlay Curtis and Djeidi Gassamma gave Rangers a priceless lead to protect in Wednesday’s second leg.
Vitoria understands why the home players and fans celebrated at the end of the first leg, but warns they are mistaken if they believe the job is already done.
“We need to be more united than ever,” the Portuguese said.
“It was a really good atmosphere in Scotland, but believe me, it is going to be a very nice and hot atmosphere here as well.
“Rangers will understand that it is not easy to play in Athens – not for them and not for anybody else.”
Even with a 21:00 local kick-off time, the temperature is expected to be in excess of 30C at the Olympic Stadium.
Vitoria believes the heat and atmosphere can give Panathinaikos the edge, while emphasising the importance of scoring first.
And despite losing the first leg, Vitoria thinks the performance in Glasgow will give his side belief.
“What we did there was something rather unbelievable for a Champions League match because we had many chances, we played in our way, but we could not score,” he said.
“Although Rangers had fewer chances, they were able to score two goals. They have a lot of quality and we were punished because we did not take our chances.
“The match left a really bitter taste for all of us.
“The most important thing now is to score the first goal. I think that once we score the first goal, then the second and third ones are going to come.”
Kenley Jansen pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 19th save as the Angels won back-to-back games for the first time since defeating Arizona on July 11 and 12.
The 37-year-old Jansen hasn’t allowed an earned run in 16 consecutive appearances, the longest active streak in the American League and the third-longest of his career.
Connor Brogdon (2-1) replaced Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz in the fifth and gave up one run in 1⅔ innings. Kochanowicz, called up from triple-A Salt Lake earlier in the day, conceded two runs — none earned — in 4⅔ innings.
Newman’s two-run shot opened the scoring in the third, and Zach Neto added an RBI double in the fifth.
Josh Jung hit a solo homer and Jonah Heim had an RBI single for the Rangers. Josh Smith and Corey Seager scored when Adolis García reached on an error by right fielder Gustavo Campero, who bobbled a routine flyball.
Jacob deGrom (10-3), who was 6-0 in his previous 10 starts, gave up five runs and seven hits with eight strikeouts in 5⅓ innings. The two-time Cy Young Award winner has yielded at least one home run in five consecutive games in the same season for the first time in his 12-year career.
Key moment: Ward’s leadoff homer in the sixth gave the Angels the lead for good, and Rengifo added a two-run drive off reliever Jacob Webb to make it 6-3.
Key stat:
Up next: Patrick Corbin (6-7, 3.78 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Texas on Tuesday against Yusei Kikuchi (4-7, 3.23) in the middle game of the series.
Russell Martin says the support he has had from Sir Alex Ferguson since taking over as Rangers head coach has been “incredible”.
The former Manchester United manager paid his first visit to the club’s Auchenhowie training centre on Friday, in the company of Rangers great John Greig.
Ferguson, 83, played for two seasons at Rangers from 1967-69, while Greig, 82, spent his entire career at Ibrox before a five-year spell as manager.
“Any team talk or message I give is done when those two speak about this club and what it means to them,” Martin told RangersTV.
“They are both really behind us and what we are doing. They are desperate for this team to do well.
“They feel the same way as the fans. They want to see a team that fights and works for everything and has a way about them on the pitch that exemplifies what they believe this club to be about.”
Martin played under Sir Alex’s son Darren Ferguson at Peterborough United who made him captain when he was just 21.
“He reached out and said his dad wanted to give me a call,” Martin added.
“I said ‘of course’ and since then Sir Alex has been in tough regularly. He’s been great. He’s been so supportive of me personally, which is incredible.
“It’s the first time he’s been here and it was just brilliant for everyone to see him.”
Rangers have completed the signing of left-winger Djeidi Gassama from Sheffield Wednesday for an undisclosed fee.
The Mauritania-born 21-year-old, who has signed a four-year contract, has played twice for France Under-20s.
Gassama made 47 appearances last season, all but seven being starts, and scored eight goals.
He helped the Owls finish 12th in the Championship, but Wednesday are embroiled in financial troubles as owner Dejphon Chansiri looks to sell the ailing club.
“He is certainly an exciting player who will get supporters on the edge of their seats, and I believe he will add an extra dimension to our attack with his qualities,” said head coach Russell Martin.
“He is hungry to improve as a player and, most importantly, is desperate to pull on the Rangers jersey and help deliver success to the club.”
Having come through the youth ranks with Paris Saint-Germain, Gassama had a loan spell with Belgian club Eupen before joining Wednesday in August 2023.
Overall, he played 84 times for the Championship club, scoring 12 goals and contributing four assists.
Marcus Semien went four for five and Corey Seager hit a two-run single in a seven-run third inning to help the Texas Rangers rout the Angels 11-4 on Thursday night for a split of their four-game series.
Patrick Corbin (6-7) allowed two runs and seven hits with six strikeouts in five innings to win his second consecutive start. Jacob Latz allowed a run over 3 1/3 innings of relief with six strikeouts.
Semien had three hits with an RBI and two runs scored in the first three innings. Seager went two for three as seven of nine starters drove in at least one run for Texas during a 13-hit outburst.
Adolis García launched his 11th homer — a two-run shot off Carson Fulmer in the eighth for the Rangers’ final runs.
Jack Kochanowicz (3-9) lasted just 2 2/3 innings for the Angels, allowing eight runs. Fulmer gave up three runs in 5 1/3 innings of relief.
Seager, Semien, García and Jonah Heim had four straight singles for a 2-0 lead in the first.
Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter had RBI singles and Jake Burger added an RBI double in Texas’ big inning.
Zach Neto doubled off Corbin and scored on Taylor Ward’s 21st homer to cut it to 9-2 after five. Lamonte Wade Jr. had an RBI single in the sixth and Neto hit his 14th homer — a solo shot off Dane Dunning in the ninth.
Key moment: Corbin gave up three first-inning singles, but the Angels failed to score when Mike Trout hit into a double play and Ward was thrown out at home by García on Jo Adell’s single to right field.
Key stat: The Rangers’ 3.30 ERA leads the majors, while the Angels’ 4.59 ERA ranks 24th among 30 teams.
Up next: The Angels host the Diamondbacks beginning Friday. Neither team had announced a scheduled starter.
Jorge Soler hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning, Mike Trout went deep twice and the Angels beat the Texas Rangers 11-8 on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium.
Trout hit a two-run homer in the third and added his 16th of the season in the fifth, a solo shot that gave the Angels a 6-5 lead. His fly ball out to center in the seventh advanced two runners before Taylor Ward drove in both with a single, tying the score at 8-8.
Travis d’Arnaud hit his sixth home run for the Angels in the fourth inning.
José Fermin (2-0), the seventh of eight Angels pitchers, worked a scoreless inning and earned the victory. Kenley Jansen picked up his 16th save.
Texas’ Marcus Semien drove in four runs. He hit a two-run homer, his 10th, against Reid Detmers in the seventh for an 8-6 lead. Detmers had gone 22 consecutive appearances without giving up an earned run.
Kyle Higashioka hit his third home run and finished with two RBIs for the Rangers.
Neither starter went deep into the game. The Angels’ Kyle Hendricks worked 3 2/3 innings, giving up five runs, four earned. Texas’ Kumar Rocker pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up six runs.
Key moment
Soler’s 421-foot homer to left came after Yoán Moncada’s leadoff single against Luke Jackson (2-5).
Key stat
Trout’s 29th multi-homer game — and his third this season — leaves him six homers shy of 400 for his career.
Up next
Texas’ Patrick Corbin (5-7, 4.18 ERA) pitches against the Angels’ Jack Kochanowicz (3-8, 5.42) on Thursday.
Nathan Eovaldi gave up one unearned run in six innings, Jake Burger and Wyatt Langford each homered and drove in four runs, and the Texas Rangers blew out the Angels 13-1 on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium.
Eovaldi (6-3) gave up five hits, struck out six and walked none to lower his ERA to 1.62 in 15 starts, the best among major league pitchers with at least 80 innings.
Corey Seager hit his 13th homer, Evan Carter drove in three runs, and Texas took advantage of nine walks, with six of those runners scoring.
Infielder Kevin Newman pitched the final three innings for the Angels and infielder Ezequiel Duran threw the ninth for the Rangers.
Angels starter José Soriano (6-6) did not give up a hit through three innings. With a 1-0 lead, he threw two strikes to Seager to open the fourth before throwing seven straight balls and walking Seager and Marcus Semien.
The Rangers then scored five runs in a span of six pitches for a 5-1 lead. Langford hit a two-run double to left, Carter had a ground-rule, two-run double to left and Burger hit a run-scoring single.
Texas took advantage of left-hander Sam Aldegheri’s three walks to score four runs in the fifth, making it 9-1.
Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery left Aldegheri, a top prospect who was called up from double A, in long enough to throw 42 pitches in the fifth. Seager’s sixth-inning homer against Aldegheri made it 10-1.
Seager, a former Dodger, is batting .447 (21 for 47) with five homers, two doubles, nine RBIs, 10 walks and no strikeouts in his last 13 games against the Angels dating to Sept. 26, 2023.
Up next, Angels right-hander Kyle Hendricks (5-6, 4.68 ERA) will face Rangers right-hander Kumar Rocker (3-4, 5.80) on Wednesday night.
Travis d’Arnaud knows Jacob deGrom better than any other catcher in baseball. He caught the hard-throwing right-hander 60 times when they played together with the New York Mets, the most frequent backstop the former Cy Young Award winner has thrown to in his career.
That familiarity did d’Arnaud and the Angels well en route to their 6-5 victory over the Rangers (44-47) on Monday night, in which Nolan Schanuel walked off their American League West foes in the ninth inning by drawing a bases-loaded, RBI walk.
The veteran catcher ambushed deGrom in the second inning for a two-run home run, just hitting the ball hard enough — 97.4 mph — over the left-field wall.
D’Arnaud’s home run broke deGrom’s Rangers franchise-record streak of 14 consecutive starts with two or fewer runs given up — and provided the Angels (44-46) with an early 3-2 lead.
“Getting lucky to hit a homer against any Cy Young winner is really special,” said d’Arnaud, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Later, with deGrom in line for the win, d’Arnaud tied the score during a two-out rally in the sixth against relief pitcher Shawn Armstrong, lining a double to deep left-center field to score Luis Rengifo, who reached base on a single.
The Angels’ Logan O’Hoppe douses Nolan Schanuel with a cooler of sports drink after he delivered a walk-off walk against the Texas Rangers Monday at Angel Stadium.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
“We were in every game right till the end, in every single game in Toronto, and so it showed we were still going to fight to the last out,” d’Arnaud said, when asked about not being able to come through as a team with three, one-run losses against the Blue Jays, “and today we were able to prevail, which is a huge step for us.”
A batter later, pinch-hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. channeled the “Throwback Week” theme at Angel Stadium, reverting to the clutch hitting that earned him the nickname “Late Night LaMonte” in San Francisco. The 31-year-old, wearing the ‘70s-style Angels uniform, singled to center to give the Angels a 5-4 lead.
Interim manager Ray Montgomery, who was ejected in the seventh innings arguing balls and strikes after Mike Trout looked at an inning-ending strike three call, said Wade waited for his opportunity to make an impact — even with limited at-bats after Jorge Soler’s return from injury creating a log jam in the outfield.
“Anytime off the bench you can get some sort of feeling and get some reps, it’s good, and you hope it carries over,” said Montgomery, who watched the remainder of the game from the clubhouse. “Huge at-bat by him.”
DeGrom didn’t flex the ace-caliber stuff he often tests foes with. On Monday, he gave up three earned runs and five hits across five innings, striking out five and walking two.
Yusei Kikuchi, coming off Sunday’s announcement that he earned an All-Star berth (his second of his career), didn’t live up to the pitcher’s duel billing either. The Japanese southpaw labored through an almost-20 minute first inning — in which he gave up a two-run home run to Corey Seager — and never settled down during his five innings.
“I didn’t have my best stuff, but the team really picked me up today,” Kikuchi said in Japanese through an interpreter.
Before d’Arnaud’s tying double, Kikuchi was bound to be the losing pitcher, giving up four runs on six hits, struggling to accrue the same strikeout success he’d achieved as of late. He struck out just four, tied for the second-fewest he’d tallied in 2025 and the first time he’d done so since late May against the Yankees.
But none of that mattered when Schanuel came to the plate with the bases loaded, after Zach Neto was intentionally walked, washing away an 0-for-4 night with his walk-off walk.
“I didn’t need a hit,” Schanuel said. “I put my pride aside.”
Reliever R&R
The Angels placed veteran right-handed relief pitcher Hunter Strickland on the 15-day injured list with right-shoulder inflammation on Monday afternoon. Strickland, who had pitched 22 innings in 19 games to the tune of a 3.27 earned-run average for the Angels, said he felt his arm get stiff before pitching against the Blue Jays on Sunday.
During his outing, in which Strickland struck out one batter in a scoreless inning, the 36-year-old said the stiff sensation in his arm got worse, causing the IL stint. Cuban righty Víctor Mederos was called up from triple-A Salt Lake City in his place.
“We’re just hoping for the best and see what they say,” Strickland said, adding that he will get an MRI on Tuesday.
Robert Stephenson (stretched nerve in right bicep) said he began throwing again on Monday — soft toss — after soft-tissue recovery helped “fully heal” the nerve.
“I don’t think it’s gonna be a quick process, but at least I can start building up,” said Stephenson, who is in the second year of a three-year, $33 million contract with the Angels.
Stephenson has thrown just one inning as a member of the Angels, hurting himself in his second appearance back from Tommy John surgery on May 30.
Panathinaikos’ visit will mark Russell Martin’s first competitive game as Rangers head coach and the former Southampton boss has been handed the toughest of their possible draws despite the Ibrox side having been seeded.
All three potential opponents were, like Rangers, runners-up in their domestic leagues, but while the Greek side are 111th in the European club rankings, 86 places behind Rangers, Swiss side Servette are 139th (one behind Heart of Midlothian) and Norwegians Brann 189th.
Panathinaikos have never lost to Scottish opponents over 90 minutes in four meetings with Rangers, two with Motherwell and one with Aberdeen, winning four of their seven games.
However, it was Rangers who progressed when they last met the Ibrox side.
Having beaten Aberdeen 3-0 at home in the 2007-08 Uefa Cup group stage, the Greeks exiting on away goals after a 0-0 stalemate in Glasgow was followed by a 1-1 draw in Athens in the round of 32.
They had beaten Rangers 3-1 at Ibrox, and drew 1-1 at home, in the Champions League group stage in 2003, while they eased aside Motherwell 5-0 on aggregate in their latest meeting with a Scottish side in 2012 – in the Champions League third qualifying round.
Panathinaikos have not reached the Champions League proper since 2010-11 and last season started in Europa League qualifying, beating Botev Plovdiv but losing to Ajax before qualifying for the Conference League by defeating Lens.
They lost 4-1 at home to eventual winners Chelsea and beat The New Saints 2-0 in Wales in the new league stage, finishing 13th, before beating Vikingur Reykjavik in the knockout phase then losing to Fiorentina in the last 16.
Rangers lost their opening Champions League qualifier to Dynamo Kyiv last season under Philippe Clement, but reached the Europa League quarter-finals, by which time interim head coach Barry Ferguson was in charge.
Teams winning their second qualifying round ties face two more rounds to make the league stage.
