Confident Henrik Rydstrom explains why his Malmo will 'probably' beat Rangers again
Malmo boss Henrik Rydstrom believes his side will "probably" beat Rangers in their opening Europa League clash.
The Swedish club have twice knocked the Light Blues out of the Champions League qualifiers in 2011 and 10 years later in 2021 and Rydstrom is convinced they are ready to win again when Philippe Clement's troops take to the pitch at the Eleda Stadion tomorrow evening.
The 48-year-old did acknowledge the talents Clement's side have as he predicted how they might line up against his own squad but he is confident Di blåe can see off their opponents in the first fixture of the newly revamped League Phase of the competition.
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“They [Rangers] are a well-organised, structured team that plays a little bit different, in a different way, to what we do. Rangers are quite a positional team,” he said. “But they’re also a team that are strong. We know that when we play in Europe, it's higher intensity. More runs, higher speed. Those kinds of things will be important tomorrow.
"Who is favourite? We can look at other things than the odds. We can see the amount of money Rangers spend on players, and coaches and then they are above us. I think their coach earns a little bit more than me for example. We are strong and people respect us so I have no problem with that. But we are also aware of the strength that Rangers possess.”
A video recently shared by Malmo's social media team mocked Rangers' fortunes which read: 'When we met in 2011, you ended up in the fourth division. When we met in 2021, you ended up in the Europa League final.'
But Rydstrom brushed it off as "done with love". And that's when he insisted his side will "probably" inflict more pain on their foes with a win in Sweden. "I haven't seen the video. If I know our media department, it's done with a lot of love. I think we need that in football. I believe it's a good one. It's never a bad thing to remind the opponent that this happened before and it will probably happen again."