Alfredo Morelos slips a neat pass through for Daniel Candeias to run on to but rather than having a shot on the angle the Portuguese winger tries to clip a cross in the direction of Lassana Coulibaly and gets it all wrong.

Ovie Ejaria is putting himself about impressively, snapping into tackles and getting around the midfield at a rapid rate of knots. A nice exchange with Ryan Kent gives him the chance to launch another home attack but he puts too much on his long ball forward and the chance is gone.

The Russians are trying to take the sting out of play whenever they can but Rangers are not giving the visiting defenders any time to dwell on the ball for long.

Fernando trudges over to take a Spartak corner and his fizzing cross is much more dangerous than his languid demeanour suggests, with Jon Flanagan getting a crucial touch in his six yard box to prevent Ze Luis getting to it.

Now it's Ryan Kent who gets the Ibrox crowd to their feet as the winger squirts past two defenders to ping in a cross from the left.

Steven Gerrard wanted Rangers on the front foot and that's what the manager is gettting.

Image source, SNS

Rangers are out of the traps quickly, with a surging run from Alfredo Morelos leading to a corner. From the delivery, the Colombian striker gets a slight touch with his head but can't steer the ball on target.

And we're off at a noisy Ibrox. Can Rangers keep up their excellent home form?

Ze Luis is the man in goalscoring form for Spartak Moscow.

The 27-year-old Cape Verde striker scored twice in the 3-2 defeat by Arsenal Tula at the weekend to take his total to eight this season - also scoring a double in their last Europa League game against Villarreal.

Midfielder Roman Zobnin, who played every minute in Russia's journey to the World Cup quarter-finals, is another to watch out for, while Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has picked out Brazilian defensive midfielder Fernando as a danger from free-kicks.

Liam McLeod's Spartak scout report

Image source, Getty Images

There was quite an atmosphere at Ibrox when Rangers hit two late goals to complete a stirring comeback victory over Rapid Vienna and manager Steven Gerrard wants to hear more of the same from supporters tonight.

"I'd like us to really take the game to the opposition," he said at his media conference. "We need to ignite the crowd like we did in the previous game.

"We believe that if we play on the front foot, if we are aggressive and take the fans with us then we are a tough team to play against here. You try to put yourself in the shoes of the opposition manager. If your first game in charge is away at Ibrox, and if we're at it with the crowd behind us, then that is a tricky game for your first match in charge. We need to make sure we don't disappoint."

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Rangers may have been fourth seeds going into the group phase but the Ibrox side have a great chance to cement their place at the top of this section against opponents in apparent disarray.

Just like Rapid Vienna did immediately before their visit to Ibrox, Spartak got rid of their manager.

Raul Riancho is the interim boss for this one and the Spaniard did not sound too convincing when he said: "I'm not only thinking about the match with Rangers. I have to think about the future as well."

He went on to explain that several players had been left behind in Moscow to prepare for a "very important" league match with Rubin Kazan on Monday.

These stats augur well for Steven Gerrard's men...

Rangers are undefeated in five matches at home against Russian opponents, including this season's 1-0 qualifying success against Ufa.

Rangers are unbeaten at home this season and have won eight in a row at Ibrox.

Spartak have never beaten a Scottish side, losing twice and drawing twice with Celtic.

Spartak have only won one of their past 14 European away fixtures, losing eight.

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It's another disappointing European defeat for Celtic and their Europa League campaign is now hanging by a thread after back-to-back losses on the road.

Once again, lapses in defence proved costly for Brendan Rodgers' side.

They really need to beat RB Leipzig in Glasgow next time.

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Jonathan Sutherland
BBC Sport Scotland at the Red Bull Arena

Is tonight an example of Celtic "standing still" in the summer? Brendan Rodgers made that point at the weekend. The fringe players have generally done well tonight, but ultimately the Scottish champions have missed their key players and - on this evidence - there is simply not enough strength in depth to get some kind of positive result from a match that really mattered.

The game is fizzling out...

Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Worrall, Goldson, Flanagan, Ejaria, Jack, Coulibaly, Candeias, Morelos, Kent.

Substitutes: Foderingham, Grezda, Halliday, Katic, Lafferty, Ross McCrorie, Middleton.

Spartak Moscow: Maksimenko, Rasskazov, Bocchetti, Dzhikija, Melgarejo, Ignatov, Fernando, Zobnin, Lomovitskiy, Ze Luis, Tashaev.

Substitutes: Roman Eremenko, Hanni, Kutepov, Petkovic, Popov, Rebrov, Timofeev.

Pat Bonner
Former Celtic goalkeeper on BBC Sportsound

The sloppy defending is catching as Olivier Ntcham is gifted the chance to get a goal back for Celtic. However, the midfielder can't beat goalkeeper Yvon Mvogo, who sticks out a leg to make the save as Callum McGregor screams forlornly for a pass.

A warm roar of approval from the home fans as 18-year-old Erik Majetschak gets on for the last few minutes, taking over from Kevin Kampl.

Kieran Tierney makes progress up the left and cuts the ball back for Callum McGregor, who has time to settle and take aim with a long-range effort that whistles over the top. Not too far away from the Celtic midfielder.

The Bundesliga side continue to hog the ball but the tempo has dropped significantly, with no one in a rush to take their fifth corner of the evening.

When it does come in, Jack Hendry does well to unsettle Willi Orban, who heads wide from close range.