Match Preview: Sunderland v Glasgow Rangers - pre-season (officially) kicks off in Portugal!

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Saturday 9th July 2022

Sunderland v Glasgow Rangers

Friendly

Estadio Municipal de Albufeira

Kick-Off: 20:00

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Tickets & Match Coverage

Tickets: Tickets are available online via SAFC here.

TV/Stream: Full live match coverage is available here.

Don’t forget to follow the blow-by-blow account of the game on the Roker Report Twitter feed (@RokerReport) and check out the player ratings after the full-time whistle at www.RokerReport.com!

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The build-up...

The players might have had a game or two behind closed doors, but it’s fixtures like this that give us that feeling that we are starting to ramp up to the start of the season which, due to the World Cup, is kicking off three weeks tomorrow for the Lads at home to Coventry City.

So far this summer we have managed to seal the long term futures of Lynden Gooch, Anthony Patterson, Patrick Roberts and Bailey Wright, and in terms of additions to the squad, Leon Dajaku became permanent following promotion, and 22-year-old central defender Daniel Ballard has signed on the dotted line from Arsenal.

With the timelines involved for all football clubs, it has been a strange summer and the expectation is that the majority of the business may occur later in the window, so further additions are likely.

But as we take on Europa League finalists Rangers, Alex Neil’s side will be full of familiar faces as we begin our preparations for a crack at the Championship this season.

Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images

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Head to head...

(All non-competitive, home and away)

Sunderland wins: 8

Draws: 4

Glasgow Rangers wins: 2

Sunderland goals: 31

Glasgow Rangers goals: 15

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Last time we met...

Wednesday 21st July 1999

Friendly

Ibrox

Glasgow Rangers 3-1 Sunderland

(Ferguson 18’, Bould (OG) 21’, Mols 64’ - Phillips 75’)

Sunderland: Sorensen, Makin, Bould, Butler, Gray (Holloway), Summerbee (Wainwright), Ball, Fredgaard (McCann), Lumsdon, Quinn (Dichio), Phillips Substitutes not used: Marriott, Craddock, Helmer

Glasgow Rangers: Klos, Adamczuk (Nicholson), Moore (Porrini), Wilson, Numan, B. Ferguson (Reyna), I. Ferguson (Vidmar), Albertz (Johansson), Van Bronckhorst, Wallace, Mols Substitutes not used: Niemi, Amato

Attendance: 38,200

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Played for both...

Ally McCoist

After breaking through at St Johnstone McCoist became Sunderland’s record signing for around £400,000 that came a month before his 19th birthday.

Alan Durban was the man in charge and during a turbulent time at the club, the young Scottish striker was up against it as Sunderland battled at the wrong end of Division One. It would be in 1983 when Rangers made their move in a deal worth around £185,000 after McCoist had scored nine in 65 appearances for the Lads.

At Rangers he became a legend, becoming the club's record goalscorer, most goals in European competitions and third on the overall list of appearance makers by the time he finished on the pitch. He then returned to take up the role of Walter Smith’s assistant in 2007 before taking over as manager in 2011.

Photo by S&G/PA Images via Getty Images

Claudio Reyna

Reyna caught the eye of Bayer Leverkusen during the 1994 World Cup and signed soon after, although found it difficult to hold down a regular place resulting in spending two years on loan at Wolfsburg.

His form there led to Rangers splashing out around £3 million for the midfielder in 1999, where he would remain until Peter Reid paid around £4 million in December 2001. Reyna was a class act who was hampered by injuries, especially the knee injury he sustained in October 2002 that ruled him out long term.

Following Sunderland’s relegation, Reyna joined Manchester City in 2003 but once again his time there was impacted by injury until he moved back to the US in 2007.

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