Ibrox cauldron spooked us in Rangers defeat says Feyenoord’s Steven Berghuis

STEVEN BERGHUIS admits Feyenoord were spooked by the cauldron of noise at Ibrox and lucky not to be on the end of a real hammering by Rangers.

The former Watford striker reckons his side couldn’t cope with the Light Blues in the first half and then when they did get going, they came up against a resolute defence.

Berghuis now says the pressure is on Feyenoord to beat group favourites Porto in Rotterdam in two weeks’ time or their qualification hopes could be wrecked.

The 27-year-old said: “We were lucky that we were only one goal down at half-time.

“The second half was a little bit better but we couldn’t break down the blue wall because Rangers defended so well.

“We found it really difficult to play because of the noise and the atmosphere in the stadium.

So we need to find out a way to play away from home in these kind of conditions

“I thought we started quite well but because of the pressure play of Rangers we were forced to play the long ball and that’s not the way we are used to playing.

“We were knocked out of our own game.”


Berghuis, speaking to Feyenoord TV, added: “But the roles will be reversed when Rangers come to Rotterdam. De Kuip can be just like Ibrox was in these kind of European nights.

“We will have the crowd behind us and they can give us wings to give that extra percentage to play like Rangers did on Thursday night.

“It will be an important game for us in terms of our qualification hopes.

“But the next game is even more important. We have Porto at home and we need to win that game to get back into contention in the group.”

I didn’t think the atmosphere was brilliant myself, felt there was a lot of silent spells in the second half, when the team
Needed us most.
Rapid Vienna was better imo.

Nice to see him with such positive words about us though.

The atmosphere was tremendous, it naturally got tense when they came into it second half though.
 
The most impressive ‘crowd-dismantling’ I have seen - of a quality opposition team - was Rangers vs Dynamo Kiev under Souness.

Kiev at that time were basically the Soviet Union national squad, and one of the best teams in the world. They were man for man miles better than us - but fortunately for us they were psychologically unprepared for what was coming inside Ibrox that night. They stepped unwittingly into an unbelievable cauldron of noise defending a 1-0 lead from the first leg.

You know how your first experience of the old firm game kind of blows your mind. You think it feels a bit dangerous - like a stadium of lunatics. Well the Kiev atmosphere that night was for me much more intimidating and louder than that. Kiev were caught right in the middle of an old firm type environment on steroids. They were not prepared.

From the first minute until the last the atmosphere and noise was incredible. It was the the type of environment that felt electric and slightly scary - like the crowd were on the verge of a riot. It was spine-tingling - and the Kiev players visibly folded under the pressure. They looked like nervous wrecks as they wilted under building noise and pressure from all four stands - at times singing totally independently in a cauldron of competing noise. Kiev were broken by our fans that night as much as the team.

It was by far the best and most intimidating atmosphere I have ever experienced at any ground.

Great post Vince. So true.

I’ll never forget the last 5 minutes when nearly everyone was standing & flipping their scarves & the noise was just constant.

You couldn’t make out a song because about ten different songs were being sung in different parts of the stadium. It was just a wall of noise.
 
The most impressive ‘crowd-dismantling’ I have seen - of a quality opposition team - was Rangers vs Dynamo Kiev under Souness.

Kiev at that time were basically the Soviet Union national squad, and one of the best teams in the world. They were man for man miles better than us - but fortunately for us they were psychologically unprepared for what was coming inside Ibrox that night. They stepped unwittingly into an unbelievable cauldron of noise defending a 1-0 lead from the first leg.

You know how your first experience of the old firm game kind of blows your mind. You think it feels a bit dangerous - like a stadium of lunatics. Well the Kiev atmosphere that night was for me much more intimidating and louder than that. Kiev were caught right in the middle of an old firm type environment on steroids. They were not prepared.

From the first minute until the last the atmosphere and noise was incredible. It was the the type of environment that felt electric and slightly scary - like the crowd were on the verge of a riot. It was spine-tingling - and the Kiev players visibly folded under the pressure. They looked like nervous wrecks as they wilted under building noise and pressure from all four stands - at times singing totally independently in a cauldron of competing noise. Kiev were broken by our fans that night as much as the team.

It was by far the best and most intimidating atmosphere I have ever experienced at any ground.

Copland Rear that night. Anyone who was there will never forget it.

Souness had given Kiev some amount of praise before the match. Basically said that if we could beat Kiev, a team he considered the best in the world at that time, there was no reason we couldn’t win the trophy.

They had won the ECWC two seasons earlier, had reached the EC semi final the season before and were considered an absolutely top european side.

So, as we turned up that evening, the entire crowd knew were up against it, but really believed we had a chance of turning round the 1-0 deficit.

Then, we saw the pitch. Souness has had our staff shrink it by about 3 or 4 yards either side. The fans all knew we meant business the moment we stepped up the stairs into the stands.

It was an absolute cauldron of noise and you could see that their players were spooked the moment they walked those extra yards onto the pitch and the wall of sound hit them.

It remains the loudest I have ever heard Ibrox sustained over 90 minutes. Wonderful wonderful night amongst many others that have followed. But that one still stands out
 
The continuation of sticking our most energetic and vocal fans in BF1 is absolutely ridiculous. As you say, no other club treats their similar set of fans in this way. It's just typical Rangers :(

Agreed mate. It seems the club want to limit the numbers to keep them manageable. The chances of them expanding the UBs went from slim to none after the closure fiasco as well, even if they were unfairly singled out.
 
The most impressive ‘crowd-dismantling’ I have seen - of a quality opposition team - was Rangers vs Dynamo Kiev under Souness.

Kiev at that time were basically the Soviet Union national squad, and one of the best teams in the world. They were man for man miles better than us - but fortunately for us they were psychologically unprepared for what was coming inside Ibrox that night. They stepped unwittingly into an unbelievable cauldron of noise defending a 1-0 lead from the first leg.

You know how your first experience of the old firm game kind of blows your mind. You think it feels a bit dangerous - like a stadium of lunatics. Well the Kiev atmosphere that night was for me much more intimidating and louder than that. Kiev were caught right in the middle of an old firm type environment on steroids. They were not prepared.

From the first minute until the last the atmosphere and noise was incredible. It was the the type of environment that felt electric and slightly scary - like the crowd were on the verge of a riot. It was spine-tingling - and the Kiev players visibly folded under the pressure. They looked like nervous wrecks as they wilted under building noise and pressure from all four stands - at times singing totally independently in a cauldron of competing noise. Kiev were broken by our fans that night as much as the team.

It was by far the best and most intimidating atmosphere I have ever experienced at any ground.

Never experienced an atmosphere like it before or since.
 
This is really positive news, given that such a mental blow has been struck to visiting teams atmosphere wise without the most rousing and intimidating anthem of all being sung.

It will - and already has given how it crept back into our repertoire since 2015 - be hard to let TBB go but in the current climate of people being offended by everything, set by such self-righteous hypocritical pricks like FARE and UEFA, it’s best if it’s consigned to the history books and we continue making Ibrox a sea of noise and colour with a songbook that won’t get us into bother.
 
The continuation of sticking our most energetic and vocal fans in BF1 is absolutely ridiculous. As you say, no other club treats their similar set of fans in this way. It's just typical Rangers :(

Agree. Liewell couldnt do a better job of killing the Ibrox atmosphere if he was in charge.
 
Copland Rear that night. Anyone who was there will never forget it.

Souness had given Kiev some amount of praise before the match. Basically said that if we could beat Kiev, a team he considered the best in the world at that time, there was no reason we couldn’t win the trophy.

They had won the ECWC two seasons earlier, had reached the EC semi final the season before and were considered an absolutely top european side.

So, as we turned up that evening, the entire crowd knew were up against it, but really believed we had a chance of turning round the 1-0 deficit.

Then, we saw the pitch. Souness has had our staff shrink it by about 3 or 4 yards either side. The fans all knew we meant business the moment we stepped up the stairs into the stands.

It was an absolute cauldron of noise and you could see that their players were spooked the moment they walked those extra yards onto the pitch and the wall of sound hit them.

It remains the loudest I have ever heard Ibrox sustained over 90 minutes. Wonderful wonderful night amongst many others that have followed. But that one still stands out
Narrowing the pitch was a masterstroke. Can still remember that 'keeper with the tache trying to bowl the ball out for Falco's goal.
 
Copland Rear that night. Anyone who was there will never forget it.

Souness had given Kiev some amount of praise before the match. Basically said that if we could beat Kiev, a team he considered the best in the world at that time, there was no reason we couldn’t win the trophy.

They had won the ECWC two seasons earlier, had reached the EC semi final the season before and were considered an absolutely top european side.

So, as we turned up that evening, the entire crowd knew were up against it, but really believed we had a chance of turning round the 1-0 deficit.

Then, we saw the pitch. Souness has had our staff shrink it by about 3 or 4 yards either side. The fans all knew we meant business the moment we stepped up the stairs into the stands.

It was an absolute cauldron of noise and you could see that their players were spooked the moment they walked those extra yards onto the pitch and the wall of sound hit them.

It remains the loudest I have ever heard Ibrox sustained over 90 minutes. Wonderful wonderful night amongst many others that have followed. But that one still stands out

Great post Arminius. What a memory :D
 
Its why I've got to laugh when I see/hear people downplaying the effect fans can have on a football match.

First half the fans were excellent, spooked the Feyenoord team and drove our team on. It gives them that little bit extra energy to burst whilst pressing and driving at the opposition.
 
We even had a thread on here before the match saying Ibrox would be a library. Embarrassing tosh and so out of touch it's unreal.
 
I know mate. But we need to get beyond that. It passes on to the players. We need to "support" the players during these times. Second half should have been so much better. Long periods of silence does no-one any good. Need to drive them on for the full 90.

I agree but that is genuinely easier said than done. I was in BF2 singing and jumping about the entire first half pretty much but 50-60 mins in I was a bag of nerves.
 
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