#ludogorets

#ludogorets

"I remember applauding it when it was presented in 2021. The knockout rounds were always great, but the group stage had become heavy. Now it's very entertaining. UEFA deserves credit."

Wrexham struggled from kick-off against an out-of-form Birmingham, whose spirited showing belied a side that had managed just one win in their last six league games.

When Demetriou, the then Walsall defender, scored the only goal of his 51-cap international career to put Cyprus 2-1 up in Israel, the small but raucous red corner of the Bilino Polje Stadium burst into scenes of pure elation.

After dominating possession for the next 20 minutes, Bayern eventually got the breakthrough around the 33rd minute. A sweeping move saw Leon Goretzka play a clever chip pass to find Luis Diaz's run in the box. The Colombian made terrific contact and hammered the ball into the net to score his 20th goal of the season.

Bodø/Glimt were already admired for their ascent through the Norwegian system-returning to the top flight only in 2017 and winning four league titles in the years that followed. But their leap into the Champions League spotlight this season has been extraordinary. As tournament debutants, they arrived with curiosity surrounding them-but they quickly replaced intrigue with astonishment.

Rangers will head into the UEFA Europa League game against Ludogorets Razgrad on Thursday on the back of a 5-0 victory over Anna Athletic at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup. It came after a 2-0 victory over Aberdeen on the road in the Scottish Premiership, which followed a 2-0 win against the same opposition at home just three days earlier.

In this stadium, how they are pushing here with the supporters, really huge atmosphere. How we were feeling, our supporters supporting us and helping us, it was really fantastic. And then we played the match with discipline. We were defensively, getting a huge responsibility to stop them, to avoid getting in our box creating chances and we did. We had a lot of transition to score one more, one goal like we did and more.

We've given ourselves a chance to get through and from that viewpoint, I'm delighted. My own view is that if we had stayed with 11 men, we would have won the game. Given the circumstances, absolutely [a point gained]. We're playing a good team trying to get into the top eight - naturally they're going to put pressure on us. We showed a great resilience. We have to win next Thursday, but even so, we've got a lot to think about before then.