Oxford United are set to play one of the most famous clubs in the world in pre-season.

They will take on Scottish giants Rangers in a behind-closed-doors friendly at the Glasgow club’s £14m training ground on Tuesday, July 21.

It was originally mooted that Chris Wilder’s new-look U’s team would play Hibs behind closed doors on their short Scottish tour, but this has now been switched.

Instead, it will be the international stars of Walter Smith and Ally McCoist’s Scottish Premier League and Cup double winners three days after their friendly at Morton on Saturday, July 18.

The two big pre-season games at the Kassam Stadium will be against Championship club QPR – who United beat in the 1986 Milk Cup final – on Friday, July 24 (7.45pm), and against Peterborough United on Saturday, August 1 (3pm).

Under Sir Alex Ferguson’s son Darren, and his assistant David Oldfield, the former Oxford United player and coach, Posh won automatic promotion to the Championship by finishing runners-up to Leicester City in Division 1.

The Glasgow Rangers game is thought to have come about through the contacts of Alan Hodgkinson MBE, United’s goalkeeping coach, who used to be Rangers’ youth goalkeeping coach.

The Ibrox club won their domestic league title for the 52nd time – more than any other team in the world – last month, and a spectacular 35-yard goal from Spaniard Nacho Novo brought them a 1-0 win over Falkirk in the Scottish Cup final.

Their Murray Park training ground, named after chairman Sir David Murray, has state-of-the-art facilities.

It was used by the South Korea national team before the 2006 World Cup finals.

Wilder said: “It will be a great experience.

“We’re going to play a game against Rangers, see the facilities at the training ground, have a meal and then have a tour of Ibrox to see what it’s like at one of football’s great clubs.”