Malmo stars ready for major change as Rangers’ Europa League clash will see one thing missing

Malmo skipper Anders Christiansen is confident his side can tune back into the demands of VAR despite Swedish league chiefs pulling the plug on plans to introduce the telly technology, reports Andy Newport from Sweden.

The Allsvenskan remains the only major European top flight competition without pitchside replay screens after a supporter backlash. But the monitors will be on stand-by as Henrik Rydstrom’s Sky Blues welcome Rangers to the Eleda Stadion for the Europa League curtain raiser.

Christiansen is a big backer of the Swedish VAR blackout, agreeing with the critics who claim the video tech serves only to kill the game’s passion. But he’s certain Malmo won’t be caught out as they look to rewind back the years and replicate the two previous victories they’ve recorded over the Ibrox men.

He said: “Obviously you know in the European competitions that you're going to have it. I don't think you will find one person here in Sweden that likes VAR. It's the same for me. I don't think at the moment that VAR is giving a better product for football. There’s too much delay. I think you take out the passion. I come from Denmark and we have it in Denmark.

"But after every game there's discussion about VAR. So I don't think we remove any problem. We just move the problem from one thing to another thing. So I'm really glad that we don't have VAR in Sweden. I hope we will keep that for a long time. We have been in Europe before and played games with VAR. It's different but it's not like we cannot handle it.”

Christiansen was Malmo’s key man when they last faced Gers three years ago. Steven Gerrard’s men lost out on a £40million Champions League windfall as they lost out 2-1 both home and away - with future Ibrox frontman Antonio