{"id":163879,"date":"2025-09-23T13:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T13:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/163879\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T13:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T13:28:08","slug":"rangers-hero-predicts-an-act-of-resistance-will-unleash-hell-on-genk-for-90-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/163879\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers hero predicts an act of resistance will unleash hell on Genk for 90 minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ex Ibrox star also played for Genk and has given his thoughts ahead of the Europa League opener between his two old clubsPyro in the stands at Ibrox(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Former Rangers and Genk star Thomas Buffel reckons his Belgian countrymen have more talent than the Ibrox side ahead of their Europa League<\/a> opener.<\/p>\n

Rangers<\/a> face Genk with both sides struggling in their domestic leagues – the visitors are now third from bottom in the Belgian league after eight games.<\/p>\n

Buffel was a hero at both Rangers – where he scored an Old Firm goal 20 years ago and won the Ibrox side the title and a League Cup – and Genk where he made over 300 appearances and won a league and cup double there.<\/p>\n

He was even manager of Genk’s reserve side until earlier this year and reckons it could be another tough night for Russell Martin<\/a>…after a disastrous 9-1 aggregate loss in their last meeting against Belgian opposition against Club Brugge in this season’s Champions League<\/a> qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Buffel said: “Rangers are in a period of transition. They’ve had to let a lot of players go in just one year. Club Brugge were able to hurt them at the back and with speed<\/a>. There’s definitely potential there for Genk.<\/p>\n

“Nico Raskin is one of Rangers’ key players. A good footballer, don’t get me wrong, but he’s more of a No.6 or No.8 and if you want to do well in Europe, you need more quality up front and in other positions. That’s where things are currently stagnating.<\/p>\n

“Genk has more individual talent. They can make the difference with a move or a burst of acceleration. Based on that, I would say Genk definitely has a chance of winning.”<\/p>\n

But he’s warned Genk that playing at Ibrox could be ‘hell’ for them.<\/p>\n

Ex-Rangers star Thomas Buffel<\/p>\n

Buffel added: “Rangers are still finding their feet right now, but it doesn’t take much to set the stadium on fire.<\/p>\n

“A hard tackle or a moment where the whole team goes on the attack can be enough to unleash hell for 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

“I still get messages on social media from Rangers fans because I scored against Celtic. If you can make every Rangers fan’s dream come true, they’ll adore you.<\/p>\n

“Ibrox still gives me goosebumps. Feyenoord’s De Kuip and Ibrox are two unparalleled stadiums where I enjoyed the fans and the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

“The stadium has that authentic feel. Some parts of the stadium haven’t changed since it was built. At Rangers, you always get that wow feeling.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ex Ibrox star also played for Genk and has given his thoughts ahead of the Europa League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,568,8528,9323,9329,561,82],"class_list":["post-163879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-champions-league","tag-europa-league","tag-rangers-fc","tag-russell-martin","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}