Sometimes managers and their staff spend hours and days in front of the blackboard, preparing tactics for the game and analyzing everything until the early morning hours, but not Dortmund coach Marco Rose. The German tactician didn’t have to do much preparation work for the upcoming second leg of the Europa League against Rangers for two main reasons. First of all, he now knows the opposing team much better, as they already played them a week ago and the second, Borussia played so awful, they managed to lose at Westfalen 4-2 and the only tactic for today’s game is – attack.Morning from Scotland! 🚌🏴 pic.twitter.com/G7eYvHHUx3— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) February 24, 2022 Borussia need a win of two goals to force the overtime, or three to advance to the next round, which means they have to attack, and attack without their best player Erlin Haaland, who is still injured and didn’t travel to Scotland along with other injured players Manuel Akanji, Dan-Axel Zagadou and Giovanni Reyna.“The situation is clear. We’ve come here with a big weight on our shoulders. We need a good balance. The game lasts 90 minutes. That means we have 90 minutes to score goals but still need to ensure we get Rangers’ attacking quality under control. We must attack, go looking for goals and come up with better solutions in our offensive play than we did in the first leg” said Rose ahead of the game.Borussia humiliated at home: Rangers score 4 goals at Signal Iduna ParkBut scoring isn’t Borussia’s problem. Fifteen different players have found the back of the net for Dortmund so far this season, apart from Haaland. And captain Marco Reus has come into his own in recent weeks, scoring back-to-back braces for the first time since October 2015 and netting five times in his past for league outings, plus his hat-trick of assists on Sunday.“We don’t have to motivate ourselves. We know what’s at stake. We know what’s at stake. It’s a do-or-die game. And we have big plans. We’ll do everything we can to make Thursday our day” said the captain.Two Borussias, six goals and only one humiliation… The Moench oneOne thing in which Borussia is certainly in advantage is the experience. Dortmund reached the Europa League knockout stages in two previous campaigns, progressing to the quarter-finals in 2015/16 (lost to Liverpool), and the round of 16 in 2017/18. All in all, The Millionaires have been in the Champions League last 16 in each of the nine seasons prior to this one, progressing to the quarter-finals five times, while Rangers count this game as their only fifth appearance in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase. On-loan Manchester United winger Amad Diallo is an option on the right of midfield, while Aaron Ramsey brings with him a wealth of experience that will be a major benefit to the squad but both January signings are likely to start from the bench at Ibrox Stadium.UEFA Europa League Playoff round, Second legThursday20:45 Dinamo Zagreb – Sevilla20:45 Lazio – FC Porto20:45 Olympiacos – Atalanta20:45 Real Sociedad – RB Leipzig23:00 Napoli – Barcelona23:00 Rangers – Borussia Dortmund23:00 Real Betis – Zenit St. Petersburg23:00 Sporting Braga – FC Sheriff Tiraspol
