Rangers in focus CHAMPIONS Tonight Rangers take on Dutch champi ons Ajax minus their influential captain Richard Gough (pictured right). Gough is suspended for the Champions League clash after picking up a yellow card in the match in Amsterdam. It was his second booking of the tournament - he was also cautioned in the first match against Grasshopper in Zurich. Also ruled out through suspension for tonight's match are defenders Alex Cleland and Craig Moore. Rangers will badly miss the pres ence of Gough, who despite being in the twilight of his career is in tremendous form this season. The Gers skipper has been a model of consistency so far this term and has also chipped in with vital goals. King Richard scored the only goal in the 1-0 win over Motherwell at Fir Park earlier in the season. And it was Gough who rose majes tically to head the crucial first goal in the 2-0 Old Firm victory at Ibrox. Earlier that week Rangers suffered a 2-1 home defeat in their Champions League encounter with Auxerre. But on the Saturday they bounced back with a tremendous victory over Celtic to open up a five point gap at the top of the table. It was an enthralling spectacle for the 50,000 plus crowd inside Ibrox who witnessed proceedings. Celtic's Tosh McKinlay was sent off before Gough opened the scoring and then Paul Gascoigne headed the clinch- LEAGUE er near the end. Two weeks later Rangers faced a difficult task when they faced manager- less Hibernian at Easter Road. The Gers were looking to create a new Premier League record of twelve consecutive victories. Things looked to be going well when Jorg Albertz put them ahead with a thunderous 20 yard free-kick. 27

AJAX ARCHIEF

Programmaboekjes (vanaf 1934) | 1996 | | pagina 27