Our Overall Record vs Massive European Clubs

theperoniloyal

Timplosion Tsar
Thinking that Porto will now class us as their European bogey team now after Thursdays result!

Am I right in saying we’ve played them 6 times and only lost once?

It also got me thinking about our historic record bs other massive European clubs and our records (e.g won 1 and lost 1 vs Lyon).

Thought it would be interesting to test forum members knowledge of our overall records vs other massive clubs!
 
Head to head we've got some decent records against some good teams. Overall, as a club, though our European record is nothing short of pitiful. And that hurts me to say.

This is true. We should've been pushing for CL trophies throughout the nineties especially. 9iar disguised what should've been seen as abject failure. We had a bigger budget than the 99 treble winning Man Utd team. Let that sink in for a minute.
 
Last edited:
This is true. We should've been pushing for CL trophies throughout the nineties especially. 9iar disguised what should've been seen as abject failure. We had a budget three times the size of the 99 treble winning Man Utd team. Let that sink in for a minute.

The 60s and NIAR teams let us down massively in Europe. If ever there was a time to achieve success and then consolidate it it was then.
 
Head to head we've got some decent records against some good teams. Overall, as a club, though our European record is nothing short of pitiful. And that hurts me to say.

Sadly, this is the case.

Our success in Scotland is in almost direct contrast to our success in Europe.

It's been an area in which we almost routinely under-perform, embarrass or come up short.
 
This is true. We should've been pushing for CL trophies throughout the nineties especially. 9iar disguised what should've been seen as abject failure. We had a budget three times the size of the 99 treble winning Man Utd team. Let that sink in for a minute.

What do you mean by ‘budget’?

In terms of revenue the top English clubs had pulled away from Rangers by the late 90s.

I agree that we should have done better back then but we were hampered by the ‘three foreigners’ rule.
 
What do you mean by ‘budget’?

In terms of revenue the top English clubs had pulled away from Rangers by the late 90s.

I agree that we should have done better back then but we were hampered by the ‘three foreigners’ rule.

Our wage bill was larger than United
 
Last edited:
The 60s and NIAR teams let us down massively in Europe. If ever there was a time to achieve success and then consolidate it it was then.

Advocaat side underachieved too. We were one of the biggest spending clubs in Europe across the Smith and Advocaat era and had one single really impressive Europe campaign. Hamstrung by the 8 local diddies rule for the first half of that period but even considering that we should have done more.
 
Our wage bill was three times that of United

You got a source for that cause it sounds very unlikely to me. Might have outspent Man U in the period English sides banned from Europe but I would be very sceptical about that still being the case at the end of the 90s never mind having 3 times their wage bill.
 
In 1997-98 our wage bill was £17.9m - United’s was £26.9m.

The following season ours increased to £28m while Utd’s went to £37m. Ours fluctuated slightly above and below £30m for several seaons while Utd’s doubled between 1999 and 2003.

We weren’t too far behind the top English clubs during 9IAR.
 
In 1997-98 our wage bill was £17.9m - United’s was £26.9m.

The following season ours increased to £28m while Utd’s went to £37m. Ours fluctuated slightly above and below £30m for several seaons while Utd’s doubled between 1999 and 2003.

We weren’t too far behind the top English clubs during 9IAR.
Remember there being a bit of a tabloid debate on who was the bigger club, seems mad now but it was the turn over between the English European ban ending & the EPL going stratospheric with TV cash.

Porto, & a few others, are a bit funny. they fluctuate between being very beatable & launching a serious CL winning team.
 
The 60s and NIAR teams let us down massively in Europe. If ever there was a time to achieve success and then consolidate it it was then.
Agree 100% yet it was the '88 Steaua Bucharest games that I regret the most - PSV won the Cup on away goals & a shoot out. That was the moment imo ('93 aside).

NAIR teams wasted money & failing to qualify a la Gothenburg were dreadful. '60's don't remember.
 
Last edited:
If only European competition had started in the 1920s . We would have had a few trophies .

mr struth was in his 80s when l‘equippes idea of European completion was put into practice

92/93 was a missed opportunity .
 
Did Bill Struth not fancy European football? Im sure I read that before and that was at the beginning of European trophies and we had an exceptional team then
 
Thinking that Porto will now class us as their European bogey team now after Thursdays result!

Am I right in saying we’ve played them 6 times and only lost once?

It also got me thinking about our historic record bs other massive European clubs and our records (e.g won 1 and lost 1 vs Lyon).

Thought it would be interesting to test forum members knowledge of our overall records vs other massive clubs!
Remember losing 1-0 to the khonts maybe 83, away, Fernando Gomes with a heider in the 2nd half. Other than that we own them.
 
Luck also plays a big role in European football.

Many older bears I know (including my late grand father) are adamant that Baxter breaking his leg in 64 cost us a EC.

Likewise I am convinced Mols injury in 99 cost us beating Bayern that night and having a very good run in the CL that year.
I’m not saying we would have won it, but we were playing off the park a team who were 90 seconds from being European champions 6
Months earlier and would have surely got the 1 goal we needed had Mols avoided That horrible landing.
 
If only European competition had started in the 1920s . We would have had a few trophies .

mr struth was in his 80s when l‘equippes idea of European completion was put into practice

92/93 was a missed opportunity .
Would we tho? We had a considerable advantage in terms of resources over most European rivals in the 50s/60s yet failed win anything (albeit losing 2 finals). It seemed even then Scottish football lagged behind our continental rivals in matters of conditioning and tactical nous. I’d wager that if there was European competition involving us in the 1920/30s era we’d have found it very difficult to get past the ‘Mittel Europa’ sides who were already playing in a European competition then called the Mitropa Cup. The Austrian, Hungarian, Czech and Italian club sides were the elite of the day - and their national teams weren’t bad either.

If British football hadn’t been so insular and paraochial at this time our game might have developed differently. Instead haughty indifference bordering on dismissive arrogance set us back decades.

Symon, for all his qualities as a leader and his ability to have an almost dynastic grip on things domestically for a decade (obviously starting from solid foundations left from the previous manager!), left a lot to be desired as a tactician and modern thinker. We were scudded by Real and AC Milan around this time and the article linked to below sums up how woefully ill-prepared and out of touch with reality he was in the infamous Eintracht game. I’m sure I read another article somewhere on this game where the Eintracht players themselves recalled being bemused at Rangers warm up practices and making no attempt to address areas of weakness during the game itself. Eintracht weren’t even a fully professional side at the time!


Would we - or any other British club side - have been any more tactically aware and street smart during the 1920/30s also? Guess we will never know, but our first decade or so of European adventures in the 50s and 60s gives an inkling over what it might have been like.
 
If you’d told any of the guys who were in Barcelona that night in 1972 that that would be the only trophy we’d have 47 years later, they’d have laughed at you.

The way I see it now , I am just so Fcking grateful we won it .

Can you imagine the feeling now of having never won a major european trophy in our history ? It would’ve been a millstone around our neck . Those Barcelona bears only increase in importance as the years go by .
 
Lyon isn't a massive European club. The result over there was incredible given their level at that time but Feyenoord and Porto are both significantly bigger clubs.

Champions League Quarter Finalists two years in a row and the season before we played them Semi Finalists.

In the context of when we played them id say they were one of Europe's best at that time.
 
Luck also plays a big role in European football.

Many older bears I know (including my late grand father) are adamant that Baxter breaking his leg in 64 cost us a EC.

Likewise I am convinced Mols injury in 99 cost us beating Bayern that night and having a very good run in the CL that year.
I’m not saying we would have won it, but we were playing off the park a team who were 90 seconds from being European champions 6
Months earlier and would have surely got the 1 goal we needed had Mols avoided That horrible landing.
We certainly wouldn’t have been far away if Baxter hadn’t got injured.
 
Champions League Quarter Finalists two years in a row and the season before we played them Semi Finalists.

In the context of when we played them id say they were one of Europe's best at that time.

They weren’t semi finalists the year before we played them.

They reached the semis in 2010 for the only time
 
Head to head we've got some decent records against some good teams. Overall, as a club, though our European record is nothing short of pitiful. And that hurts me to say.

Have to agree.

As much as the Yahoos had a hilariously bad European record, especially away from home until very recently, they did often raise their game for the big occasions beating the likes of Milan, Barca and Man U in the CL, while we tended to come up a little short against the really big teams.

I know it’s only the secondary event we’re competing in, but this side under Gerrard really gives me hope we can begin to address that record.
 
Last edited:
Luck also plays a big role in European football.

Many older bears I know (including my late grand father) are adamant that Baxter breaking his leg in 64 cost us a EC.

Likewise I am convinced Mols injury in 99 cost us beating Bayern that night and having a very good run in the CL that year.
I’m not saying we would have won it, but we were playing off the park a team who were 90 seconds from being European champions 6
Months earlier and would have surely got the 1 goal we needed had Mols avoided That horrible landing.

The two games against Bayern that season showed everything that was good about us, but also what we still lacked at that level.

We were the better side in both games yet only took a single point and it’s what cost us a place in the next round.

It felt the way I imagine smaller Scottish sides often felt against us, when they’d given it their all yet our superior know how in getting the job done ultimately did exactly that.

Bayern had that experience and it paid off in the end.

Yes we were unlucky with Mols’ injury, but he played in the first match at Ibrox yet we let a lead slip away as we didn’t have that little extra bit of quality to kill the game off when we were in the ascendancy.

The win against Porto on Thursday was notable in as much as we beat a very good side while not being at our best.

Maybe we’re finally learning how to play in Europe?
 
The two games against Bayern that season showed everything that was good about us, but also what we still lacked at that level.

We were the better side in both games yet only took a single point and it’s what cost us a place in the next round.

It felt the way I imagine smaller Scottish sides often felt against us, when they’d given it their all yet our superior know how in getting the job done ultimately did exactly that.

Bayern had that experience and it paid off in the end.

Yes we were unlucky with Mols’ injury, but he played in the first match at Ibrox yet we let a lead slip away as we didn’t have that little extra bit of quality to kill the game off when we were in the ascendancy.

The win against Porto on Thursday was notable in as much as we beat a very good side while not being at our best.

Maybe we’re finally learning how to play in Europe?
We had the game at Ibrox won mate.

A shocker of a dive from Matthaus, a referee giving a foul for it, a free kick deflected off the wall with pretty much the last kick of the ball.

I get these things can happen with a one goal lead, but you can't do much when a player dives, the ref is taken in by it and the free kick deflects away from the keeper.
 
We had the game at Ibrox won mate.

A shocker of a dive from Matthaus, a referee giving a foul for it, a free kick deflected off the wall with pretty much the last kick of the ball.

I get these things can happen with a one goal lead, but you can't do much when a player dives, the ref is taken in by it and the free kick deflects away from the keeper.

We were spent after an hour such was the effort we’d put in up until that point. We deserved to be more than just one goal to the good.

It was a fortuitous equaliser for Bayern just when it looked like we might hold out, but they had been the better side for the last half hour and did look like they might get it.

I tend to subscribe to the belief that sides with a winning mentality always find a way to win / avoid defeat when they have to and at that level we just didn’t have the same nous as the Germans.
 
Its amazing that all the European cups won by Scottish teams were managed by prods!
 
Back
Top