Rangers vs West Ham preview: Team news, line-ups, where to watch (26/07/2026)
Preview, team news, head-to-head, probable line-ups and where to watch Rangers vs West Ham in a pre-season friendly at Ibrox Stadium
Rangers host West Ham United at Ibrox on Sunday, July 26, with both side’s stepping up their pre-season preparations ahead of the start of the new campaign.
The Glasgow club will be taking part in their final off-season match ahead of the Scottish Premiership season which kicks off on Friday, July 31 with a trip to face Dundee United.
The Hammers begin their EFL Championship campaign on August 16 with a tough away match at Turf Moor to face fellow relegated side Burnley.
Rangers kicked off their pre-season on Wednesday with a 2-1 win over French side St-Etienne, with goals from penalties from new signing Lawrence Shankland and Norway World Cup hero Thelo Aasgaard.
Despite a later start to their league campaign, West Ham have already played two friendlies this summer. The first in a 1-1 away draw to Southend United, before a 0-5 away win over Stevenage on Wednesday.
Latest team news
Rangers
New head coach Derek McInnes handed starts to summer signings Ross McCrorie, Ben Godfrey, Ivor Pandur, Dan Neil and Lawrence Shankland on Wednesday in the 2-1 win over St-Etienne, while new arrival Cammy Devlin came on in the second half.
Youssef Chermiti and Bojan Miovski were lively in the second half and helped Rangers eventually get the win in front of their own fans.
West Ham United
The summer has been somewhat more hectic for Nuno Espirito Santo, having to deal with a number of departures following West Ham’s relegation from the Premier League.
Matheus Fernandes has joined Tottenham, Callum Wilson has left for Brentford and Crysencio Summerville is the latest to jump ship in a big-money move to Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia.
That has made Nuno’s pre-season planning far more difficult than he would have liked, and he is still waiting to see if some big-name arrivals will join in time to be integrated into the side before the Championship season starts.
Head-to-head
The most recent Rangers vs West Ham United meeting came in a pre-season friendly in the summer of 2022. On that occasion, the Scottish side came away with a 3-1 win over the Hammers.
They have only met on two occasions, both friendlies, with the first meeting coming in 1979 in an old pre-season tournament held by Rangers at Ibrox called the Tennent Caledonian Cup.
- 19/07/2022: Rangers 3-1 West Ham United (Club Friendly)
- 03/08/1979: Rangers 3-2 West Ham United (Tennent Caledonian Cup)
Predicted line-ups
With both managers focused on distributing game-time to their entire squads ahead of the new season, starting line-ups are tougher to predict during pre-season.
But seeing as it is Rangers’ last friendly before the season starts on Friday, McInnes is likely to field his strongest line-up in a bid to boost morale and get the team into rhythm.
For West Ham and Nuno, getting the players up to speed is still the priority with three weeks still to go before the Championship season starts.
Rangers predicted XI: Pandur, McCrorie, Godfrey, Sterling, Rommens, Neil, Aasgaard, Devlin, Curtis, Miovski, Shankland
West Ham predicted XI: Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Scarles, Kanté, Ward-Prowse, Earthy, Bowen, Castellanos, Pablo
Key players to watch
Lawrence Shankland (Rangers)
Shankland will likely be the player to watch for Rangers fans on Sunday. The Scotland international who represented his country at the 2026 World Cup has a big season ahead of him on the back of his controversial move from Hearts. He so narrowly missed out on the title last year and will have an even bigger spotlight on him this time around under his old Hearts manager McInnes. The Ibrox faithful have big expectations of the striker and another goal against West Ham on Sunday would endear him to the fans before the SPFL begins.
Jarred Bowen (West Ham United)
Despite all the recent misery Hammers fans have had to go through in recent months, the decision of their star player and club captain Jarred Bowen to stay at the club has been a big boost. Bowen will be the biggest threat for Rangers to contend with down the right side of attack, and the England international will be hungry for goals and assists as he aims to get into top condition before the Championship season starts.
Where to watch Rangers vs West Ham United
The Rangers vs West Ham friendly match kicks off at 16:00 BST on Sunday, July 26 at Ibrox in Glasgow.
The match will not be broadcast on major television networks such as Sky Sports or TNT Sports in the UK.
However, fans of each side can tune into the game via their respective official channels.
The game is available internationally and inside the UK on RangersTV in a paid service, while West Ham does not currently list any way of watching the game on their channels.
Rangers vs West Ham odds and prediction
According to the latest Rangers vs West Ham odds, the English side are the slight favourites to win the match at 13/10.
Rangers are not far off, with odds of 8/5, while a draw is estimated at 10/3.
Prediction: Rangers 2-2 West Ham
