Rangers in no mood for holiday

A vacation will be the last thing on the Rangers players minds when they meet Grasshopper Zurich at Ibrox tonight. Four successive defeats in the Champions' League will have dented the Scottish title holders' pride, and they will have been stung by the comments of the Grasshopper striker Kubilay Turkyilmaz, who derided Rangers as "holiday-makers" following a 3-0 defeat in Zurich in September.

Archie Knox, Rangers' assistant manager, is as aware of a need for a disciplined performance as he is of his charges' understandable indignation.

"It hasn't been discussed by us on a team basis," he said, "but if the players individually feel the need to respond to that then that is up to them."

One indisciplined element of Rangers' European campaign will be missing. Paul Gascoigne is suspended tonight as he sits out the second game of a four-match ban imposed for his red card against Ajax in Amsterdam last month. But Richard Gough, Alex Cleland and Craig Moore return after suspensions, although Gordon Durie, Stuart McCall and Alan McLaren are out injured.

Ally McCoist may start after being on the substitutes' bench for last Thursday's Old Firm win. McCoist has never scored in the Champions' League and, at 34, is naturally desperate to break the duck.

Grasshopper can secure a place in the quarter-finals, depending on how they fare and Auxerre's result against Ajax in Amsterdam. Turkyilmaz, meanwhile, may yet rue his comments. He seems to be on something of a break himself: he has not scored in his last 12 games.