Livingston shall be attempting to continue their undefeated run of five games on Sunday when they host the league leaders Rangers.
This will mark Giovanni van Bronckhorst's first game in charge of the Gers in the Scottish Premiership and he will want to start it with a bang to keep his team at the top of the league.
Match preview
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Even though Livingston are sitting just above the relegation zone in 10th place, they head into this game in fantastic form as of late after putting together some excellent performances.
David Martindale's team have managed to go five matches without a loss, although their last three fixtures have resulted in draws, which have stopped them from climbing up the division.
The Lions left it late last weekend when they faced St Mirren, having waited until the 88th minute to draw level when Nicky Devlin found the back of the net.
Defensively the team have improved lately, having only conceded twice in their past three matches, which also included a clean sheet against Celtic.
However, they have faced Rangers twice already this year and Livingston have failed to win either of them, having not even registered a goal in those games.
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The Gers won 3-0 when they last met in the league and they then followed that up by knocking the Lions out of the Scottish League Cup in the quarter-finals.
However, Rangers were recently sent out of the competition themselves in what was van Bronckhorst's first game in charge as a Martin Boyle hat-trick saw them suffer a 3-1 loss.
During their most recent performance, the Scottish side were able to get back to winning ways when they played Sparta Prague in the Europa League, with a brace from Alfredo Morelos securing the 2-0 result.
In the league, the Gers currently sit top of the table, but there is only a four-point gap between them and their Old Firm rivals Celtic, placing real pressure on each game.
Rangers have been free-scoring recently in the SPL, having found the back of the net 10 times in their most recent two performances, which is something that could provide them wth enough confidence to secure consecutive victories.
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Team News
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Livingston's 3-4-2-1 formation is something that has proven to be successful for the Lions as of late, which they will no doubt adopt once more on Sunday.
Martindale will also be boosted by the fact that Ben Williamson will once again be available for the team following his suspension.
Rangers are without Kemar Roofe at the moment after he suffered a knock during the international break, but with Morelos having just scored a brace, there should be plenty of attacking quality available for the team.
Meanwhile, Filip Helander is unavailable due to a knee problem and Nnamdi Ofoborh is still not cleared due to his heart condition.
Livingston possible starting lineup:
Stryjek; Devlin, Obileye, Fitzwater, Parkes, Montano; Bailey, Holt, Omeonga, Shinnie; Anderson
Rangers possible starting lineup:
McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Bassey, Barisic; Davis, Kamara; Kent, Aribo, Hagi; Morelos
We say: Livingston 0-2 Rangers
Rangers have been in strong form as of late in the league with their attacking football proving to be too much for their opponents, which should be the case again on Sunday.
Even though Livingston have improved recently, it is going to be difficult for them to continue that against the table-toppers.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Rangers win with a probability of 70.74%. A draw had a probability of 19% and a win for Livingston had a probability of 10.24%.
The most likely scoreline for a Rangers win was 0-2 with a probability of 14.46%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (14.12%) and 0-3 (9.87%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.85%), while for a Livingston win it was 1-0 (4.32%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 6.2% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Rangers would win this match.
