Rangers route to the UCL: Who are Partizan Belgrade and Dynamo Kiev - key players, head to head record

Both Partizan and Dynamo are set to clash in the first leg of the second-qualifier tomorrow, before a return leg will determined which team will face Philippe Clement’s charges next month. With squads having to be announced by August 1st, the Belgian boss will hope to ramp up efforts to add to his squad for their European campaign, though he has admitted he must sell before he can buy.

Rangers are already aware that a win in the third-qualifying round will see them face the winners of Salzburg vs Twente or Lille vs Lugano/Fenerbahçe in order to reach the Champions League group stage. But what challenge are the most likely to face?

We assess both Dynamo Kiev and Partizan Belgrade ahead of the UEFA Champions League qualifier next month.

Dynamo Kiev summer signings, last season and outlook for 24/25

The club will hope for a far more successful campaign this coming season following their disappointing 23/24 campaign. A poor start to the 23/24 campaign saw them replace head coach Mircea Lucescu with assistant Oleksandr Shovkovskyi in November. While their form improved, as they won nine of their final 10 games to finish second in the Ukrainian Premier League, a crushing defeat against eventual champions Shakhtar Donetsk ended their titles hopes with just three weeks left of the season. They were also knocked out of the Ukraine Cup at the first round after a shock 1-0 defeat against struggling Obolon Kyiv. Their UEFA Europa Conference League was also poor, exiting the competition in August after losing to Beşiktaş 4-2 on aggregate.

Shovkovskyi has continued in his role as manager after his promotion from assistant and the Ukrainian they’ve been impressive in pre-season, keeping four clean sheets in five games, while scoring 11 - including four goals in an impressive 4-0 victory over Danish giants Brondby. They’ve have only signed three players so far, adding Dnipro duo Valentyn Rubchynskyi and Oleksandr Pikhalyonok alongside Maksym Braharu.

It is also worth nothing that Dynamo are currently playing games away from Ukraine due to the ongoing Russian invasion of the country, with any potential game against Rangers set to take place at the Arena Lublin in Poland, which has a capacity of 15,243.

Who are Dynamo Kiev’s key players?

There are a number of players that Rangers fans will be aware of, with ex-West Ham United striker Andriy Yarmolenko and Vladyslav Vanat. However, 22-year-old midfielder Volodymyr Brazhko is one to watch. The former Ukraine under-21 captain is one of the countries brightest prospects and bagged a spot in their Euro 2024 starting XI this summer after his outstanding performers leading up to the tournament.

Rangers record vs Dynamo Kiev

The Gers have played the Ukraine outfit twice competitively, after being drawn against each other in the 1987/1988 European Cup First Round. Rangers would lose the first leg in Ukraine 1-0 after Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko’s 36nd-minute strike, however, the second leg would provide one of the greatest atmospheres Ibrox has witnessed.

A goal after 26 minutes from Mark Falco would level the scores and send almost 45,000 Rangers fans into raptures before Ally McCoist struck the clinching second goal to win the tie on aggregate just after half time. The Gers would defeat Polish outfit Górnik Zabrze in the next round before falling to Steaua București in the quarter finals of the competition.

The sides did meet 11 August 1990 in a pre-season friendly at Ibrox, which Rangers would lose 3-1.

Partizan Belgrade summer signings, last season and outlook for 24/25

The new Serbian domestic league already kicked off at the weekend and saw striker Matheus Saldanha score a dramatic 93rd-minute winner against 10-man FK Napredak Kruševac on Friday night. They’ve been very active in the summer transfer window too, signing Serbian international Đorđe Jovanović from FC Basel, Bosnian centre-back Nihad Mujakić, Honduran midfielder Kervin Arriaga and Slovenian wing-back Mario Jurčević among others.

Like Dynamo Kiev, they finished comfortably in second place in the Serbian SuperLiga last year and were seven points clear of third placed TSC. That said, they were 10 points behind champions FK Crvena zvezda, who were the runaway leaders in Serbia. They also lost out to FK Crvena zvezda in the Serbian Cup semi final and were knocked out of the UEFA Europa Conference League at the qualifying stage after losing heavily to Norwegian outfit Nordsjælland 6-1 on aggregate.

They changed their head coach towards the end of the campaign, replacing Igor Duljaj with his assistant Albert Nađ, following a unanimous decision made at a meeting of the club's Board of Directors. Nad remains the club’s head coach for the 24/25 campaign.

Who are Partizan Belgrade’s star players?

One of the most sought after strikers in Europe at the moment is Brazilian Matheus Saldanha, who has been tipped with a move to Everton and Fenerbahce this summer after he bagged 18 goals for the Serbian outfit last year. Midfielder Bibras Natkho and Ghayas Zahid are also players to watch, with Natko scoring 12 goals from midfield last year despite being 36-years-old.

Elsewhere, the trio of Nemanja Stojić, Uroš Spajić and Srđan Mijailović are all full Serbian internationals that were part of the nation’s Euro 2024 campaign.

The only time the sides faced each other was in the UEFA Cup as a 55th minute strike from Alan Hutton handed Rangers a 1-0 Group A win.