Borussia Dortmund 1966

My first memory of Borussia Dortmund was in 1966, when they defeated Liverpool 2-1 at Hampden to win the European Cup Winners Cup.

Six months later and Rangers are drawn to play the ECWC Holders, Borussia Dortmund, in the 2nd round.
Back then we didn't have the worldwide knowledge of players around the globe, that we have such easy access to nowadays, but we were well aware of at least three of their players, who had all done well for West Germany in World Cup 66' in England. Hans Tilkowski the National Goalkeeper, and forwards Sigi Held, and Lothar Emmerich.
This was a tough draw, with the first leg to be played at Ibrox.
We were confident though, the last time we had met a major force in European competition at Ibrox, was back in March 65', when we defeated the World club Champions Inter Milan 1-0 in the EC (though we went out 2-3 on Agg.).
Since then, we had defeated the great Benfica 3-1 at Ibrox in a glamour friendly.
Scot Symon went with an unchanged line up, that had defeated Ayr Utd 4-0 the previous Saturday.
Martin, Johansen Provan Greig McKinnon D.Smith Henderson Watson Forrest A.Smith and Johnston.

65,000 at Ibrox that night, Both teams came out in attack mode, and Bobby Watson was knocked out cold early on, when he took an Emmerich Free Kick direct to the face. He recovered quickly enough, and it was Rangers who opened the scoring after only 10 mins. when a pass from Henderson found Kai Johansen, who fought off two defenders, before slamming in a drive with such force, that though the keeper got his fingertips to it, he couldn't prevent the ball from hitting the back of the net.
Dortmund equalised on the half hour mark, with a controversial goal, that should never have been given, according to all reports. Sigi Held at full speed had crossed from the left, forcing him off the field of play in doing so, and with the resulting shot from the cross cannoning off John Greig's leg, and heading out of bounds behind the goal, with the referee blowing his whistle for a Corner, only to see Held return to the field, catch the ball on the line and fire it back across goal for Trimhold to fire it into the net, with the Rangers players motionless.
Bizarrely, the Referee allowed the goal to stand!
With 15 mins. left to play Rangers finely got the goal their play deserved when Alex Smith put Rangers back in front, with a fine looping header, from an acute angle, beyond the Dortmund keeper, from a Willie Johnston cross.
The game ended 2-1 to Rangers, and despite the victory on the night, the morning papers cast doubt as to whether that would be quite enough to see Rangers go through, also adding that under the new rules, the controversial away goal scored by Dortmund, would count as two, in the event of a tied aggregate, meaning that Dortmund only needed a 1-0 win in the return, to progress.

They would meet again in two weeks, for the return game, and despite Rangers suffering a 2-3 defeat at Dunfermline, the previous Saturday, Scot Symon named an unchanged XI for the 5th game in succession.
If you thought the Scottish press were negative towards Rangers chances, it was nothing compared to the German press, who were already writing their obituaries on Rangers, who had no hope of stopping one of the best attacking teams in Europe, giving Rangers absolutely no chance of qualifying.
It was not just the papers that were predicting Rangers funeral.
With the tie being played on St Nikolaus Day (Dec 6th), the Dortmund players had taken an oath to deliver Rangers in a sack, as a gift to their fans.
Their coach/manager Heinz Murach had boldly predicted "we will win, of that there is no doubt. We will score in the first 10 mins, and then attack attack attack, and they will not be able to cope with us. My Right winger. Libuda
(nicknamed Stan), is a cross between Stanley Matthews and Garrincha, and he will destroy their Left Back, Davie Provan, who is slow, and will make him look like a a clown."
There was bad blood going into this game, and within 5 mins, Emmerich came out of a scuffle with McKinnon, with his nose bleeding badly. Emmerich for all his dirty tricks and talent, would not get the better of McKinnon all night. He would though take his revenge elsewhere. In the 38th minute, with the game still deadlocked at nil, and the ball on the other side of the field, some 50 yards away. Emmerich swung a boot at Bobby Watson's ankle, so severe that it appeared to have broken it. The young dynamic Rangers midfielder had to be stretchered off, and Rangers would have to play the remaining 52 minutes with only 10 men. This was how the Germans wanted to play.
This was a turning point in the game. Rangers would have to withstand the Germans barrage of attacks, and believe me, this 10 man Rangers, were more than up for it.
Scot Symon immediately ordered the versatile Alex Smith into a defensive role.
Some of the reports from that came from the game
McKinnon was simply magnificent, he cleared every ball that came into his territory, he won every header that came into the box. Norrie Martin was unbelievably outstanding, an incredible two fisted save, just minutes after Watson's departure, and then making save after save, throughout that second half, even after recovering from a suicide dive at the feet of Sigi Held, that saw Martin out cold for two minutes.
Greig was everywhere, like a man possessed, he even took the time to put Emmerich on the sidelines for a few minutes, with what one can only call a John Greig special, minutes after the restart.
Johansen crushed Held out of the game. The man they dared to call a clown, Davie Provan, allowed Libuda so few touches, he was a nonentity. The two Smiths, Dave and Alex performed intelligently.
Rangers actually had the chance to win the game, when a superb through pass from Greig, gave Forrest the chance to go one on one with the keeper, but unfortunately, Forrest placed the ball the wrong side of the post.
All of the forwards, Henderson, Forrest and Johnston (what a Trio that is!) did their defensive duties like never before.

The Game finished 0-0, Borussia Dortmund, the Holders of this Trophy were Out, yes, the conquerors of Bill Shankly's Liverpool, and yes, those loud mouthed Kraut prophets were now shuffling away rather quietly.
In other games, Everton, English Cup Winners were eliminated by Real Zaragoza, who we would face in the next round.

Those 10 guys who played those last 52 minutes should be considered Heroes for their performance,
which was at the time, probably the greatest performance ever by a Scottish team in Europe.

A Famous result that is too often overlooked, and certainly worthy of much more recognition than it gets.
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
My first memory of Borussia Dortmund was in 1966, when they defeated Liverpool 2-1 at Hampden to win the European Cup Winners Cup.

Six months later and Rangers are drawn to play the ECWC Holders, Borussia Dortmund, in the 2nd round.
Back then we didn't have the worldwide knowledge of players around the globe, that we have such easy access to nowadays, but we were well aware of at least three of their players, who had all done well for West Germany in World Cup 66' in England. Hans Tilkowski the National Goalkeeper, and forwards Sigi Held, and Lothar Emmerich.
This was a tough draw, with the first leg to be played at Ibrox.
We were confident though, the last time we had met a major force in European competition at Ibrox, was back in March 65', when we defeated the World club Champions Inter Milan 1-0 in the EC (though we went out 2-3 on Agg.).
Since then, we had defeated the great Benfica 3-1 at Ibrox in a glamour friendly.
Scot Symon went with an unchanged line up, that had defeated Ayr Utd 4-0 the previous Saturday.
Martin, Johansen Provan Greig McKinnon D.Smith Henderson Watson Forrest A.Smith and Johnston.

65,000 at Ibrox that night, Both teams came out in attack mode, and Bobby Watson was knocked out cold early on, when he took an Emmerich Free Kick direct to the face. He recovered quickly enough, and it was Rangers who opened the scoring after only 10 mins. when a pass from Henderson found Kai Johansen, who fought off two defenders, before slamming in a drive with such force, that though the keeper got his fingertips to it, he couldn't prevent the ball from hitting the back of the net.
Dortmund equalised on the half hour mark, with a controversial goal, that should never have been given, according to all reports. Sigi Held at full speed had crossed from the left, forcing him off the field of play in doing so, and with the resulting shot from the cross cannoning off John Greig's leg, and heading out of bounds behind the goal, with the referee blowing his whistle for a Corner, only to see Held return to the field, catch the ball on the line and fire it back across goal for Trimhold to fire it into the net, with the Rangers players motionless.
Bizarrely, the Referee allowed the goal to stand!
With 15 mins. left to play Rangers finely got the goal their play deserved when Alex Smith put Rangers back in front, with a fine looping header, from an acute angle, beyond the Dortmund keeper, from a Willie Johnston cross.
The game ended 2-1 to Rangers, and despite the victory on the night, the morning papers cast doubt as to whether that would be quite enough to see Rangers go through, also adding that under the new rules, the controversial away goal scored by Dortmund, would count as two, in the event of a tied aggregate, meaning that Dortmund only needed a 1-0 win in the return, to progress.

They would meet again in two weeks, for the return game, and despite Rangers suffering a 2-3 defeat at Dunfermline, the previous Saturday, Scot Symon named an unchanged XI for the 5th game in succession.
If you thought the Scottish press were negative towards Rangers chances, it was nothing compared to the German press, who were already writing their obituaries on Rangers, who had no hope of stopping one of the best attacking teams in Europe, giving Rangers absolutely no chance of qualifying.
It was not just the papers that were predicting Rangers funeral.
With the tie being played on St Nikolaus Day (Dec 6th), the Dortmund players had taken an oath to deliver Rangers in a sack, as a gift to their fans.
Their coach/manager Heinz Murach had boldly predicted "we will win, of that there is no doubt. We will score in the first 10 mins, and then attack attack attack, and they will not be able to cope with us. My Right winger. Libuda
(nicknamed Stan), is a cross between Stanley Matthews and Garrincha, and he will destroy their Left Back, Davie Provan, who is slow, and will make him look like a a clown."
There was bad blood going into this game, and within 5 mins, Emmerich came out of a scuffle with McKinnon, with his nose bleeding badly. Emmerich for all his dirty tricks and talent, would not get the better of McKinnon all night. He would though take his revenge elsewhere. In the 38th minute, with the game still deadlocked at nil, and the ball on the other side of the field, some 50 yards away. Emmerich swung a boot at Bobby Watson's ankle, so severe that it appeared to have broken it. The young dynamic Rangers midfielder had to be stretchered off, and Rangers would have to play the remaining 52 minutes with only 10 men. This was how the Germans wanted to play.
This was a turning point in the game. Rangers would have to withstand the Germans barrage of attacks, and believe me, this 10 man Rangers, were more than up for it.
Scot Symon immediately ordered the versatile Alex Smith into a defensive role.
Some of the reports from that came from the game
McKinnon was simply magnificent, he cleared every ball that came into his territory, he won every header that came into the box. Norrie Martin was unbelievably outstanding, an incredible two fisted save, just minutes after Watson's departure, and then making save after save, throughout that second half, even after recovering from a suicide dive at the feet of Sigi Held, that saw Martin out cold for two minutes.
Greig was everywhere, like a man possessed, he even took the time to put Emmerich on the sidelines for a few minutes, with what one can only call a John Greig special, minutes after the restart.
Johansen crushed Held out of the game. The man they dared to call a clown, Davie Provan, allowed Libuda so few touches, he was a nonentity. The two Smiths, Dave and Alex performed intelligently.
Rangers actually had the chance to win the game, when a superb through pass from Greig, gave Forrest the chance to go one on one with the keeper, but unfortunately, Forrest placed the ball the wrong side of the post.
All of the forwards, Henderson, Forrest and Johnston (what a Trio that is!) did their defensive duties like never before.

The Game finished 0-0, Borussia Dortmund, the Holders of this Trophy were Out, yes, the conquerors of Bill Shankly's Liverpool, and yes, those loud mouthed Kraut prophets were now shuffling away rather quietly.
In other games, Everton, English Cup Winners were eliminated by Real Zaragoza, who we would face in the next round.

Those 10 guys who played those last 52 minutes should be considered Heroes for their performance,
which was at the time, probably the greatest performance ever by a Scottish team in Europe.

A Famous result that is too often overlooked, and certainly worthy of much more recognition than it gets.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that bit of history
 
I was at that game - near the top of the terracing in the Broomloan end. Could have swore it was 3-2 to us but I was only 9 at the time.
 
carlosapicella said:
Was at the game at Ibrox,still remember sigi held goal should have been disallowed, stepped off the pitch before he scored!
Click to expand...
I remember seemingly the goal was actually ok because during the play the ball hit one of our players making Held onside
 
auldyin said:
I remember seemingly the goal was actually ok because during the play the ball hit one of our players making Held onside
Click to expand...
Yes but that wasn't the argument if I remember ,not offside as I quoted but ungentlemanly conduct, he stepped back on the field,after leaving it,anyway glad you remember it I was in the old enclosure that night with my dad,happy memories and we won
 
auldyin said:
I remember seemingly the goal was actually ok because during the play the ball hit one of our players making Held onside
Click to expand...
carlosapicella said:
Yes but that wasn't the argument if I remember ,not offside as I quoted but ungentlemanly conduct, he stepped back on the field,after leaving it,anyway glad you remember it I was in the old enclosure that night with my dad,happy memories and we won
Click to expand...
There was many arguments about that goal and why it should have been disallowed.
I think back then you couldn't leave the field of play, and then rejoin it without the Ref's permission.
The ball did hit one of our players (Greig), but at the time it hit Greig, Held was still off the field of play, he then came back on to the field, and played the ball back into the area, and they scored.
Most damaging though, was that the Rangers players insisted the Referee actually blew his whistle,
for a corner (not for Offside), before the ball had actually crossed the line, and before Held sneaked back on to cross the ball before it went out play.

Didn't matter at the end of the day, we deservedly went through.
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
There was many arguments about that goal and why it should have been disallowed.
I think back then you couldn't leave the field of play, and then rejoin it without the Ref's permission.
The ball did hit one of our players (Greig), but at the time it hit Greig, Held was still off the field of play, he then came back on to the field, and played the ball back into the area, and they scored.
Most damaging though, was that the Rangers players insisted the Referee actually blew his whistle,
for a corner (not for Offside), before the ball had actually crossed the line, and before Held sneaked back on to cross the ball before it went out play.

Didn't matter at the end of the day, we deservedly went through.
Click to expand...
That's the point I was making ,in those days it was a rule,not like sporting integrity fc nowadays,I was 13/14 years old at that game,just remember all the old bears shouting ungentlemanly conduct(or was it cheating bastard)
 
Mind Greig on his autobio said that the brutal foul by Emmerich inspired Rangers to fight like hell for the 0-0 which put us through.
 
On that footage, the wee fat ref is clearly saying that the ball broke off Greig so the guy coming back on was onside, but it’s a shocking decision. Our defenders should have played the whistle though.
 
Carltonblue said:
On that footage, the wee fat ref is clearly saying that the ball broke off Greig so the guy coming back on was onside, but it’s a shocking decision. Our defenders should have played the whistle though.
Click to expand...
The Rangers players insisted that the Ref had actually blown his whistle, which is why the players made little attempt.
 
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