Bursaspor look to break duck as Smith returns

Bursaspor will look to sign off on a positive note when they conclude their first UEFA Champions League campaign at home to Rangers FC.

• The Turkish titleholders have still not collected a single point after five matches and will have taken little pleasure from ending a wait of 429 minutes for their first UEFA Champions League goal on Matchday 5, given they were already five behind in an eventual 6-1 defeat at Valencia CF.

• Rangers' home defeat by Manchester United FC on the same night ended their hopes of progress. With third place sewn up, though, they can at least look forward to a place in the UEFA Europa League round of 32. It will be the first time they have competed in Europe after Christmas since 2007/08 when they reached the UEFA Cup final.

• Rangers beat Bursaspor 1-0 at Ibrox and with a second victory against them they would finish on eight points – their highest points total in a UEFA Champions League group campaign since 2000/01, and one better than the seven than took them through to the last 16 in 2005/06.

Match background
• Rangers manager Walter Smith will be keen to avoid a sense of déjà vu when he returns to Bursa, 36 years after finishing on the losing side as a Dundee United FC player. Smith was a 26-year-old defender in the United side beaten 1-0 by Bursaspor in a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round second-leg tie on 6 November 1974.

• That was the only previous occasion that Bursapor have welcomed Scottish opposition and Vahit Doğan's tenth-minute goal secured an overall 1-0 aggregate success and passage to the quarter-finals, where they lost to eventual winners FC Dynamo Kyiv.

• Excluding their 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup campaign, Bursapor have not won a European tie since beating Dundee United.

• Rangers' away record against Turkish opposition is one win and two defeats from three matches.

• The Scottish champions first met opponents from Turkey in the 1973/74 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round, beating MKE Ankaragücü 4-0 at home and 2-0 away.

• Rangers lost 3-2 away then drew 0-0 at Ibrox against Galatasaray AŞ in the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League group stage. Against Fenerbahçe SK in the competition's 2001/02 third qualifying round they had another home stalemate followed by a 2-1 defeat in Istanbul.

• Kenny Miller was an unused substitute for the 2001/02 trip to Fenerbahçe.

Team ties
• Bursaspor coach Ertuğrul Sağlam has overseen a victory against British opposition once in the past, as coach of the Beşiktaş JK side that beat Liverpool FC 2-1 in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage – though they did subsequently go down 8-0 at Anfield. Defender Ali Tandoğan was in the Beşiktaş lineup for both games.

• Rangers manager Smith, who played 76 minutes of Dundee United's 1974 defeat in Bursa, was not the only player involved that day with a future Rangers connection. Andy Gray, who played for the Ibrox club in 1988/89, also featured in the tie.

• Milan Stepanov was on the bench for FC Porto when they eliminated Manchester United from the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League. Smith was United assistant manager.

• Ivan Ergić played against Celtic FC for FC Basel 1893 in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, participating in a 3-1 reverse in Glasgow and a 2-0 win in Switzerland that earned his team victory on away goals.