Rangers face Hamilton Academical at Ibrox on Sunday as they look to extend their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership and win their 12th league match of the campaign.
Meanwhile, Hamilton go into this fixture after losing consecutive top flight matches against St Johnstone and Aberdeen, despite scoring five goals across the two encounters.
Match preview
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In what has been a near-perfect campaign for Rangers, the Gers suffered a slight blip on Thursday night after letting slip a two-goal lead against 10-man Benfica to draw 3-3 in the Europa League.
Alfredo Morelos wrote his name into the Rangers record books as he scored his 22nd European goal, surpassing Ibrox great Ally McCoist. However, that was not enough to secure the three points in Lisbon, which now means that Benfica are level on points with Steven Gerrard's side at the top of Group D.
Rangers conceded as many goals on Thursday night as they had in all their Scottish Premiership matches so far this season, but Gerrard should not be too concerned with his defence, which has conceded an average of only 0.23 goals per game – the best average of any side in Europe.
Rangers' tally of 35 points is also the best by any side from their opening 13 matches of a Scottish Premiership season since Celtic accumulated 37 in the 2016-17 campaign, and it is Rangers' best total at this stage of a top-flight season since 2011-12.
A victory on Sunday against Hamilton will see the Gers reach 38 points from a possible 42 available and win their sixth league match in a row.
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Hamilton have endured a difficult start to their Scottish Premiership campaign, winning only two of their first 11 league matches.
After failing to win any of their last five games, the Accies now sit bottom of the league table with just seven points.
Brian Rice's side have had no trouble scoring goals in recent weeks – netting three goals in their 5-3 loss to St Johnstone before scoring twice in their 4-2 defeat at Aberdeen – but the Accies boss needs to address his defensive frailties after conceding 25 goals so far this campaign, more than any other side in the top flight.
Hamilton go into their fixture at Rangers knowing that their previous two Scottish Premiership wins over the Gers came at Ibrox – winning 2-0 in November 2017 and 1-0 in March this year.
A shock triumph on Sunday would see the Accies leapfrog St Mirren into 11th place, securing their third victory of the season.
Rangers Scottish Premiership form: DWWWWW
Rangers form (all competitions): WWWWWD
Hamilton Academical Scottish Premiership form: WLDLLL
Hamilton Academical form (all competitions): DLLWLL
Team News
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Defender Nikola Katic is the only long-term absentee for Rangers, with the 24-year-old expected to return to action next year.
Winger Jordan Jones and defender George Edmundson are both serving suspensions.
Defenders James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Filip Helander and Borna Barisic are likely to remain Steven Gerrard's back-four.
Accies wingers David Templeton (groin) and Kyle Munro (broken wrist) are both ruled out with injuries.
Forward Andrew Winter and defender Jamie Hamilton are unlikely to feature after only recently returning to training following the pair serving self-isolation protocols.
Callum Smith could be given only his second start of the season on the right side of a midfield four.
Rangers possible starting lineup:
McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic; Kamara, Davis, Arfield; Hagi, Roofe, Kent
Hamilton Academical possible starting lineup:
Fulton; Hodson, Odoffin, Want, McMann; Smith, Mimnaugh, Martin, Callachan; Moyo, Ogkmpoe
We say: Rangers 3-0 Hamilton Academical
Despite losing their last match 1-0 against Hamilton in March, Rangers – who had won the previous seven league meetings between the teams – should have enough quality at both ends of the pitch to secure a comfortable victory at Ibrox.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 1.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Over 1.5:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Rangers win with a probability of 82.96%. A draw had a probability of 12.4% and a win for Hamilton Academical had a probability of 4.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Rangers win was 2-0 with a probability of 16.09%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 3-0 (13.77%) and 1-0 (12.54%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (5.67%), while for a Hamilton Academical win it was 0-1 (2.21%). The actual scoreline of 8-0 was predicted with a 0.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Rangers would win this match.
