#ludogorets-razgrad

#ludogorets-razgrad

The Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica has witnessed the Bosnian national football team's giant-killing ways for decades, hosting triumphs over formidable European opponents and holding football powerhouses to draws.

This crew - smallish in number but sufficiently large to assault the eardrums of the management and players - are an odd bunch. It's true that Scotland should be beyond the point of just being happy going to the World Cup - and these players are way past that notion.

Sweden secured their World Cup spot with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Poland, thanks to Viktor Gyokeres' late goal, following earlier strikes from Anthony Elanga and Gustaf Lagerbielke.

Andres Gerber, who spent six years of his playing career at Thun, told BBC Sport, 'It's a bit like when Leicester won the Premier League.' This comparison highlights the unexpected success of a club that has historically struggled.

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.

The top spot in the table - currently occupied by Zaglebie Lubin - has changed hands multiple times, and the top nine clubs in the 18-team division are currently separated by just eight points. The league's top scorers, Lechia Gdansk, are 11th in the table, while its best defence belongs to eighth-placed Wisla Plock - who are currently on a five-game losing streak.

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.

Arsenal are now probably the best team in the world at this moment. If we were thinking today that it's a derby and we can give something more, more mentality and more motivation, the reality is that there are things you can't change in 3-4 training sessions. It's impossible. So this was not a perfect team to play in the first game, but we need something good and today shows me the level.

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.

We've got a fresh slate of UEFA Champions League action today as the competition enters a new phase, with the first legs of the knockout phase playoffs determining who advances to the round of 16. Headlining Tuesday's matches is a rematch from the final day of the league phase, as José Mourinho's Benfica host Álvaro Arbeloa's Real Madrid in Lisbon.

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.

With what seemed like an interminable January almost done and dusted, the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League are also at a close. Once again, we've seen stadiums across the continent transformed into cacophonous cauldrons of noise and motion as legions of fans organized and performed enormous tifos to help ramp up the prematch atmosphere.