It comes after Philippe Clement openly discussed the disparity in transfer fees ahead of the clash. Will it give Rangers fans a sense of perspective heading into the two-legged tie? Pfft, of course not. We’re still expecting our team leave everything out there in the hunt for progression.Rangers have named a 22-man Europa League squad for the club’s run in the competition’s knockout stages, with three changes made from the first half of the campaign. Whilst teams can register 25 players, a lack of homegrown options in the squad has prevented us from doing so this season. Cue angry tweets about Lewis Ferguson and Lawrence Shankland. Nontheless, the Rangers squad, whilst substantially less so than Benfica, has seen a decent amount of investment with a total of £34.25m spent assembling this year’s team. When Philippe Clement spoke about a disparity in finances, be rest-assured that the Rangers manager was not lying.Benfica operate in a whole other stratosphere than Rangers when it comes to transfer dealings with the Ibrox side’s biggest outlay – the £5m deal signed for Ridvan Yilmaz – dwarfed by Benfica’s (£26m spent on Orkun Kökçü). Regularly spending over £10m for players, it’s interesting that Benfica’s Europa League squad only has 19 registered names because so many of their side are B list players from the club’s Academy. You’ll also notice that whilst this squad has been expensively assembled – Benfica outspending Rangers by a whopping £119.65m – it certainly seems a little top heavy. After being bruised by FC Porto and with manager Roger Schmidt under increasing pressure, does this team frighten you as Rangers fans.

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