The group stages of the Champions League kick off in group G tomorrow night. Rangers start with a tough trip away in Stuttgart. Both sides met in the same competition only two seasons ago as well as 2003. Iin the same fixture (27/11/07) the Germans won 3-2. It had been a hugley dissapointing campaign for Die Roten as they were the only points gained as they crashed out losing 5 games.

Third in the Bundesliga last season, Stuttgart qualified for their third group-stage campaign after defeating FC Timişoara in the play-off round, winning 2-0 in Romania before a goalless home draw. Including their 1-0 home defeat by Chelsea FC in the 2003/04 first knockout round, Stuttgart have lost three of their
last four home games in the UEFA Champions League proper.

A Look Back

The teams were

Stuttgart - Schafer, Magnin, Beck, Delpierre, Pardo, Khedira(Antonio da Silva), Hilbert(Ewerthon), Hitzlsperger, Cacau(Tasci), Marica.

Rangers - McGregor, Hutton, Weir, Papac, Ferguson, Hemdani, Thomson, Darcheville (Cousin), Beasley (Naismith), Cuéllar, McCulloch (Adam).

Rangers record against German opposition

Rangers away record against German opposition

Stuttgart's summer transfer activity

In

Pavel Pogrebnyak (FC Zenit St. Petersburg)
Zdravko Kuzmanović (ACF Fiorentina)
Stefano Celozzi (Karlsruher SC)
Alessandro Riedle (Grasshopper-Club)
Matthias Schwarz (FC Ingolstadt 04)
Aleksandr Hleb (FC Barcelona, loan)

Out
Mario Gómez (FC Bayern München)
Danijel Ljuboja (Grenoble Foot 38)
Georges Mandjeck (1. FC Kaiserslautern, on loan)