Previous Rangers European campaigns, a wee look at what might have been.

H

Hillbear

Member
Been a little bored over the weekend after spraining my ankle playing football in the garden!
Our extant European adventure spurred my imagination to look back at our earlier exploits and wondered when we had been in a good position to achieve success in past European campaigns.
Below are the runs that I thought were notable for various reasons, I haven't dug into the details too much but would love to hear you share your thoughts or experiences of any of them.
  • 1960 SF Eintracht Frankfurt EC - our third time in competition, lost to a very good team who then lost to a great team! Am sure a few of you FF veterans will remember the final well...
  • 1961 F Fiorentina ECWC - we beat some excellent teams on the way to the final (Ferencvaros, Borussia Monchengladach and then Wolves). We became the first British club in a UEFA sanctioned final, this was the only time it was played over two legs. Were we outplayed, or was there more to this, lost 4-1 on aggregate.
  • 1965 QF Inter Milan EC - lost 3-2 on aggregate to the eventual winners, Inter were at the time one of, if not the pre eminent team in Europe. Seems it was a very tight affair and we could have won this tie.
  • 1967 F Bayern Munich ECWC - beat the defending champions and won a coin toss on the way to the final, by all accounts we should have won, game was actually played in Germany. Needless to say there may have been a few of you there on the day.
  • 1968 QF Leeds United ICFC - Lost 2-0 on aggregate to a celebrated Leeds team who went on to record the first English win in this competition, they also squeezed past a storied Dundee team in the semis.
  • 1969 SF Newcastle ICFC - reasonably easy journey to the semis to face the Toon, drew first leg 0-0 at home, we then got beat 2-0 at St James', Newcastle went onto win the trophy, incredibly the last major trophy they have won.
  • 1972 F Dynamo Moscow ECWC - no need to expand on this one.... 3-2!
  • 1979 QF Cologne EC - having previously dispatched Juventus and PSV in great and nail-biting fashion, we drew Cologne. This was the first time I really remember following Rangers in Europe, listening to the radio I thought we would beat Cologne, hugely disappointed 8 year old. They put us out by the odd goal and ran the eventual winners Notts Forest very, very close in the semi.
  • 1980 R2 Valencia ECWC - after a good draw over in Spain against a very strong Valencia team hopes were high but we succumbed 3-1 at Ibrox and Valencia went onto win the cup..
  • 1993 SF Marseille CL - first Champions League appearance after knocking out Lyngby and then Leeds in the "Battle of Britain", group stages were fantastic Wednesday night entertainment. What happened with Marseille and Bernard Tapie is well documented, I am sure we all felt a little cheated back then. AC Milan were in their pomp but Marseille prevailed in the final, what could have been!
  • 1999 R3 Parma UC - After evicting Greek, Irish, Israeli opponents we then proceeded to oust Bayer Leverkusen only to be paired with Parma, they had an awesome line-up that year (Buffon, Fuser, Dino Baggio, Crespo, Veron, Cannavaro, Thuram, Asprilla, Balbo...). A wonderful 1-1 draw at Ibrox and onto the Ennio Tardini for the second leg, Albertz had us 45 minutes from knocking them out but we couldn't hold it and they progressed 3-1 at home and then strolled elegantly to the title.
  • 2000 GS1 Valencia/PSV/Bayern Munich CL - After gaining revenge on Parma in the qualifiers, we ended up in a very tough group (Valencia made the final). A case of what might have been, Mols' injury against Bayern hampered us somewhat and forestalled our momentum that year. Dropping into the UEFA cup and managing to beat Borussia Dortmund at Ibrox we still contrived to lose on penalties.
  • 2002 R4 Feyernoord UC - Strange adventure this year, bombed from the CL by Fenerbahce we ended up in the UEFA cup, we played Anzhi of Dagestan in a one legged tie in Warsaw because of the Chechen border uprising. After them we put our old foes Dinamo Moscow to the sword and followed that by stalemating PSG to penalties to go through to face Feyernoord. We lost 4-3 on aggregate and the Dutch team proceeding to excel by winning the tournament after beating some very good teams.
  • 2006 R16 Villareal CL - In the group stages, up against Inter, Porto and the mighty Tim conquerors Artmedia Bratislava. Four draws and a win against Porto put us through to play Villareal, 3-3 on aggregate to lose out on away goals but we were less than 45 minutes from being the first Scottish club in the QF of the CL. Watching the return leg we were certainly the better team in the first half and deserved to be more than one ahead, they probably shaded the first leg though. Villareal had the talent to win that year and were unlucky to lose to Arsenal in the semis.
  • 2008 F Zenit St Petersburg UC - Manchester, half a million (conservative estimate :))) Teddy bears descended on the city, am sure we are all familiar with the build up to the game and how we also made our way to the final. Special day and here's to hopefully more of them, winning this time!
  • 2021.............
Thanks for getting this far, bit of a history lesson for me, not hugely well researched but has left me wanting to dig into a few of the campaigns, any reading recommendations are gratefully received.
Anybody have any other years of what might have been, some fantastic Rangers teams and performances, was fun delving into the history books there.
 
Very good thread mate, the Monchengladbach tie is one that rarely gets a mention as one of our greatest results.

I had in my top 10 games on H&H, I’m sure a poster on here said at the time German football was pretty poor with most clubs being part time.

The 12-4 defeat to Frankfurt the following year kind of throws that out the window though!.

Quite proud to say I’ve been always been aware of our great European exploits.
 
1993 - its all ifs buts and maybes but for me the turning point was hateley getting sent off against brugge. And, as much as i loved the big man, he deserved it. He raised his hands and gave the ref an easy decision.

I really think we missed his experience over in marseille. We deserved our point but, really, we needed a win to put ourselves in pole position.
 
That 78-79 season was superb. Juve at Ibrox was some night.

If we'd have been a bit braver in 1992-93, cheating aside from Tapie, we could have reached the Final. Marseille badly wobbled at home in France after Durrant's scorcher.

Mols being injured at Bayern was a massive downer.
 
65, 79, and 93 to my mind are the three biggest what ifs concerning the European Cup. Baxter leg break in 64/65 and Marseille cheating being the obvious two, 79 logically looks like we would should have done so much better considering who we'd knocked out to get to Köln.

A what if I don't see mentioned much is one I think we'd have had a great chance at is if we could have won the 98 Scottish Cup, we'd have been in the last ever CWC, having competed in the first and getting to the final. Interesting to think how far the 98/99 team could have got in that last CWC tournament.
 
Looking through our European history, there is no question we've underachieved, but the amount of times we've drawn either eventual winners or finalists, usually quite early, is staggering. Along with noted injuries like Baxter, Durrant, Kuznetsov and Mols, we've certainly had a lot of bad luck to mix in with the underachieving imo.
 
You missed 1986-7 when Monchengladbach knocked us out on away goals after a shameful refereeing performance in Germany. this was the year Dundee United reached the final after putting Borussia out in the semis. I really thought we could have gone far in the tournament that year.

The following year a good Steaua team knocked us out after we had beaten a fantastic Dynamo Kiev team.
 
93, 65, and 67, were our best chances.

We all know about the underhand deeds that took place by Tapie in 93, but we would still have had to play Milan in the final. A Milan that would make the next two finals, scudding Barca 4-0 in one of them. Of course we stood a chance of beating them, we had one of the best sides in our history. However, it would have been no gimme and I think Milan would have been favourites in the final.

65 is often explained by the Baxter leg break. However we would still have had two teams to beat had we got past Inter. Benfica, the beaten finalists had scored 17 goals in the three rounds leading up to the final and with Eusebio at his peak, would have been no pushovers.

67 was our best shot in my opinion. However, playing a German team in Germany was a real disadvantage. Still, we made a right game of it and I have to think had the board not have been so stupid to make Jim Forrest a scapegoat for Berwick, would could easily have had the firepower to beat Bayern.

A word on the first two on your list, 1960, and 1961. I was a little too young to be able to comment on the games, but my recollections of that time was that European competition wasn’t really taken serious by British sides in the early years of its introduction. The domestic title was the be all and end all back then and I’m sure that would have been the priority for Scott Symon those years. I never heard any of the adults I went to the games with talk about Europe as anything more than glamour friendlies.
 
1987/88. Butcher's leg break didn't cost us the League but I think it cost us dearly in Europe that season.
 
2002 was a huge opportunity.

Put out a PSG team who were probably the best team in the competition.
Had plenty of opportunities to get that last away goal that would have seen us through against Feyenoord but just couldn’t take one. Feyenoord would go on to win the competition
 
I was at the Inter Milan game in 1965. Thirteen years old, 80,000 crowd, Jim Forrest scored in 6 minutes, big George McLean hit the bar and we just couldn’t get the equaliser. But it was some performance and as others have said, what might have been if Jim Baxter hadn’t broken his leg against Rapid Vienna
 
Feyenoord game was one we should have won if we didn't have Van Honkydonk diving about all over the place

remember a 19-20 year old Van Persie playing in that game as well
 
Hillbear said:
Been a little bored over the weekend after spraining my ankle playing football in the garden!
Our extant European adventure spurred my imagination to look back at our earlier exploits and wondered when we had been in a good position to achieve success in past European campaigns.
Below are the runs that I thought were notable for various reasons, I haven't dug into the details too much but would love to hear you share your thoughts or experiences of any of them.
  • 1960 SF Eintracht Frankfurt EC - our third time in competition, lost to a very good team who then lost to a great team! Am sure a few of you FF veterans will remember the final well...
  • 1961 F Fiorentina ECWC - we beat some excellent teams on the way to the final (Ferencvaros, Borussia Monchengladach and then Wolves). We became the first British club in a UEFA sanctioned final, this was the only time it was played over two legs. Were we outplayed, or was there more to this, lost 4-1 on aggregate.
  • 1965 QF Inter Milan EC - lost 3-2 on aggregate to the eventual winners, Inter were at the time one of, if not the pre eminent team in Europe. Seems it was a very tight affair and we could have won this tie.
  • 1967 F Bayern Munich ECWC - beat the defending champions and won a coin toss on the way to the final, by all accounts we should have won, game was actually played in Germany. Needless to say there may have been a few of you there on the day.
  • 1968 QF Leeds United ICFC - Lost 2-0 on aggregate to a celebrated Leeds team who went on to record the first English win in this competition, they also squeezed past a storied Dundee team in the semis.
  • 1969 SF Newcastle ICFC - reasonably easy journey to the semis to face the Toon, drew first leg 0-0 at home, we then got beat 2-0 at St James', Newcastle went onto win the trophy, incredibly the last major trophy they have won.
  • 1972 F Dynamo Moscow ECWC - no need to expand on this one.... 3-2!
  • 1979 QF Cologne EC - having previously dispatched Juventus and PSV in great and nail-biting fashion, we drew Cologne. This was the first time I really remember following Rangers in Europe, listening to the radio I thought we would beat Cologne, hugely disappointed 8 year old. They put us out by the odd goal and ran the eventual winners Notts Forest very, very close in the semi.
  • 1980 R2 Valencia ECWC - after a good draw over in Spain against a very strong Valencia team hopes were high but we succumbed 3-1 at Ibrox and Valencia went onto win the cup..
  • 1993 SF Marseille CL - first Champions League appearance after knocking out Lyngby and then Leeds in the "Battle of Britain", group stages were fantastic Wednesday night entertainment. What happened with Marseille and Bernard Tapie is well documented, I am sure we all felt a little cheated back then. AC Milan were in their pomp but Marseille prevailed in the final, what could have been!
  • 1999 R3 Parma UC - After evicting Greek, Irish, Israeli opponents we then proceeded to oust Bayer Leverkusen only to be paired with Parma, they had an awesome line-up that year (Buffon, Fuser, Dino Baggio, Crespo, Veron, Cannavaro, Thuram, Asprilla, Balbo...). A wonderful 1-1 draw at Ibrox and onto the Ennio Tardini for the second leg, Albertz had us 45 minutes from knocking them out but we couldn't hold it and they progressed 3-1 at home and then strolled elegantly to the title.
  • 2000 GS1 Valencia/PSV/Bayern Munich CL - After gaining revenge on Parma in the qualifiers, we ended up in a very tough group (Valencia made the final). A case of what might have been, Mols' injury against Bayern hampered us somewhat and forestalled our momentum that year. Dropping into the UEFA cup and managing to beat Borussia Dortmund at Ibrox we still contrived to lose on penalties.
  • 2002 R4 Feyernoord UC - Strange adventure this year, bombed from the CL by Fenerbahce we ended up in the UEFA cup, we played Anzhi of Dagestan in a one legged tie in Warsaw because of the Chechen border uprising. After them we put our old foes Dinamo Moscow to the sword and followed that by stalemating PSG to penalties to go through to face Feyernoord. We lost 4-3 on aggregate and the Dutch team proceeding to excel by winning the tournament after beating some very good teams.
  • 2006 R16 Villareal CL - In the group stages, up against Inter, Porto and the mighty Tim conquerors Artmedia Bratislava. Four draws and a win against Porto put us through to play Villareal, 3-3 on aggregate to lose out on away goals but we were less than 45 minutes from being the first Scottish club in the QF of the CL. Watching the return leg we were certainly the better team in the first half and deserved to be more than one ahead, they probably shaded the first leg though. Villareal had the talent to win that year and were unlucky to lose to Arsenal in the semis.
  • 2008 F Zenit St Petersburg UC - Manchester, half a million (conservative estimate :))) Teddy bears descended on the city, am sure we are all familiar with the build up to the game and how we also made our way to the final. Special day and here's to hopefully more of them, winning this time!
  • 2021.............
Thanks for getting this far, bit of a history lesson for me, not hugely well researched but has left me wanting to dig into a few of the campaigns, any reading recommendations are gratefully received.
Anybody have any other years of what might have been, some fantastic Rangers teams and performances, was fun delving into the history books there.
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I'm 69 ,was at the semi v Frankfurt and the final real v Frankfurt attended a hello of a lot of those European games memories v Dortmund who were the holders,sigi held scored a controversial goal by being off the pitch behind the goal before stepping back on for a tap in,that sticks in my mind,and I'm sure Leeds beat hibs 2-1,3rd round us quarters final and then dundee in the semis,sure to be a bit of a record!
 
tottie beck said:
93, 65, and 67, were our best chances.

We all know about the underhand deeds that took place by Tapie in 93, but we would still have had to play Milan in the final. A Milan that would make the next two finals, scudding Barca 4-0 in one of them. Of course we stood a chance of beating them, we had one of the best sides in our history. However, it would have been no gimme and I think Milan would have been favourites in the final.

65 is often explained by the Baxter leg break. However we would still have had two teams to beat had we got past Inter. Benfica, the beaten finalists had scored 17 goals in the three rounds leading up to the final and with Eusebio at his peak, would have been no pushovers.

67 was our best shot in my opinion. However, playing a German team in Germany was a real disadvantage. Still, we made a right game of it and I have to think had the board not have been so stupid to make Jim Forrest a scapegoat for Berwick, would could easily have had the firepower to beat Bayern.

A word on the first two on your list, 1960, and 1961. I was a little too young to be able to comment on the games, but my recollections of that time was that European competition wasn’t really taken serious by British sides in the early years of its introduction. The domestic title was the be all and end all back then and I’m sure that would have been the priority for Scott Symon those years. I never heard any of the adults I went to the games with talk about Europe as anything more than glamour friendlies.
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Mate I'm 69 and although quite young I attended a lot of the European times early on ,I can assure you they were not treated as friendly glamour games!
 
Johansen said:
1967, our chance was ruined in January that year with the shameful decision by the BoD to get rid of Jim Forrest
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A shameful decision indeed. The calibre and decision-making of those in charge of our club has, for large parts of our history, been a total embarrassment. How refreshing it is finally to have fans with a modicum of ambition and common sense in the boardroom.
 
Great opening post.
As someone said further up, unbelievable the amount of times we drew the favourites, or the eventual winners.
The most recent one that makes me wonder 'What if' was the year we thumped Sturm Graz at Ibrox, then won in Monaco,2 wins from 2, then collapsed.
 
Johansen said:
1967, our chance was ruined in January that year with the shameful decision by the BoD to get rid of Jim Forrest
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and rid of George McLean leaving us without our best attackers and so in the final we played a right back up front in Roger Hynd - even then we were better team had a goal disallowed and lost in xtra time.
 
tottie beck said:
93, 65, and 67, were our best chances.

We all know about the underhand deeds that took place by Tapie in 93, but we would still have had to play Milan in the final. A Milan that would make the next two finals, scudding Barca 4-0 in one of them. Of course we stood a chance of beating them, we had one of the best sides in our history. However, it would have been no gimme and I think Milan would have been favourites in the final.

65 is often explained by the Baxter leg break. However we would still have had two teams to beat had we got past Inter. Benfica, the beaten finalists had scored 17 goals in the three rounds leading up to the final and with Eusebio at his peak, would have been no pushovers.

67 was our best shot in my opinion. However, playing a German team in Germany was a real disadvantage. Still, we made a right game of it and I have to think had the board not have been so stupid to make Jim Forrest a scapegoat for Berwick, would could easily have had the firepower to beat Bayern.

A word on the first two on your list, 1960, and 1961. I was a little too young to be able to comment on the games, but my recollections of that time was that European competition wasn’t really taken serious by British sides in the early years of its introduction. The domestic title was the be all and end all back then and I’m sure that would have been the priority for Scott Symon those years. I never heard any of the adults I went to the games with talk about Europe as anything more than glamour friendlies.
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Milan were all over Marseille in that final and tbh Marseille gave us a doing for an hour at Ibrox. Still we would have had a chance. 65 our best chance. I think we hit the woodwork late on v Inter.
 
Boabmeister said:
88 quarter final , European cup vs steau, inc hagi snr & Lacatus . Souness legendary assault on the steau player .
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I was in front row of Govan right opposite and couldn't believe that 'tackle' I think he gambled that he wouldn't get sent off early.. Even though they scored early there was still a brilliant atmosphere
 
RobGer said:
I was in fronf row of Govan right opposite and couldn't believe that 'tackle' I think he gambled that he wouldn't get sent off.. Even though they scored early there was still a brilliant atmosphere
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Super Ally playing in Bucharest just after an operation. No butcher.

Ah well
 
1979 Derek Johnstone missing the second leg was huge these were tight games it would still have meant Notts Forrest in the SF but they would have known we were there
 
1988 was the year of the biggest regret that isn't in the OP.
Dynamo Kiev were better than any of the teams who made the semi finals and we knocked them out. Steau were good, but not in Kiev's class. The Italian, Spanish and German teams all went out, and the final ended up between PSV and Benfica, who we would definitely have given a run for their money if we had played well with our best players.
But our form fell off a cliff after New Year, Butcher was missing, Ally got a knee injury and we sold our other strikers without replacing.
The Rangers who started the following season that August would have beat either those finalists.
 
Disraeli said:
2002 was a huge opportunity.

Put out a PSG team who were probably the best team in the competition.
Had plenty of opportunities to get that last away goal that would have seen us through against Feyenoord but just couldn’t take one. Feyenoord would go on to win the competition
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PSG best team in the competition? They weren't even the best team in France that season.
They finished 4th.

They had some players granted, a young Ronaldinho, Arteta, Anelka. As a team though they weren't up to much.

We should have got past Feyenoord granted. Van Hooijdonk diving and McCann getting himself sent off saw to that

TheSpaceCowboy said:
The most recent one that makes me wonder 'What if' was the year we thumped Sturm Graz at Ibrox, then won in Monaco,2 wins from 2, then collapsed.
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That was the season the team just collapsed from September-November. Even got pumped out the UEFA cup at the first round after being patched out the CL to Kaiserslautern. Team just wasn't up to it that year.
 
Thanks for your replies, some great memories there, I have only been to a few European games at Ibrox, Marseille in our CL run, Leeds the same year, Dynamo Kiev and a couple of the more recent 2000 - 2012 ones but the atmosphere was always awe inspiring.
I like how some of you have a personal reflection on certain actions or omissions which are your Rangers sliding doors moments, am sure we have enough recollections for a decent book!
 
1961 CWC Final 1st leg at Ibrox Davis with a bad back pass to Ritchie was intercepted 0-1 soon after Caldow missed a penalty, might have been so different had he scored with it. Their 2nd came with the last kick of the Match.

Snippet taken from a report of the game.

"Rangers can claim with some justification that the superior crafts of their opponents proved less of a stumbling block than their opponents mastery of the arts of body checking, tripping and almost every infringement of the football rule book"

Dirty bastards were the Italians.
 
2 red cards possibly cost us 2 European trophies. Hateley v Brugge and Cousin v Fiorentina. I am convinced if Cousin had been available in 2008 we would have won.
 
carlosapicella said:
Mate I'm 69 and although quite young I attended a lot of the European times early on ,I can assure you they were not treated as friendly glamour games!
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I meant in the very first years of European competition. I believe it took a few years for British clubs to be convinced by the idea of European football. As for Rangers I’ve been told Mr Symon didn’t really bother to scout our opponents
 
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RfcIbrox said:
Milan were all over Marseille in that final and tbh Marseille gave us a doing for an hour at Ibrox. Still we would have had a chance. 65 our best chance. I think we hit the woodwork late on v Inter.
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We might well have made it past Liverpool had we beaten Inter, but I think Benfica would have caused us problems. They scored a barrowload that year and it was only a stifling Italian defence that shut them down. I don’t think we would have set up as defensively as Inter and that could have been our downfall. Eusebio was just coming into his peak at that time.

For me, the 67 side with Jim Forrest in it could have beaten Bayern
 
tottie beck said:
We might well have made it past Liverpool had we beaten Inter, but I think Benfica would have caused us problems. They scored a barrowload that year and it was only a stifling Italian defence that shut them down. I don’t think we would have set up as defensively as Inter and that could have been our downfall. Eusebio was just coming into his peak at that time.

For me, the 67 side with Jim Forrest in it would have beaten Bayern
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I may be wrong, I’m sure Hynd missed a glaring opportunity in the final. One which Forrest, or even Willoughby (who was in great form) would have taken.

I honestly can’t see Symon’s thinking behind it, I appreciate he was probably overruled at board room level on Forrest.

It’s incredible to think your star striker, and their partner gets punted after a poor defeat with some huge games remaining.
 
erskine bear said:
I may be wrong, I’m sure Hynd missed a glaring opportunity in the final. One which Forrest, or even Willoughby (who was in great form) would have taken.

I honestly can’t see Symon’s thinking behind it, I appreciate he was probably overruled at board room level on Forrest.

It’s incredible to think your star striker, and their partner gets punted after a poor defeat with some huge games remaining.
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The German reports say we were the better team and Hynd did miss a sitter plus a goal knocked off for barging the keeper. 70000 mostly supporting Bayern. We were very unlucky.
 
Beer Belly Loyal said:
1961 CWC Final 1st leg at Ibrox Davis with a bad back pass to Ritchie was intercepted 0-1 soon after Caldow missed a penalty, might have been so different had he scored with it. Their 2nd came with the last kick of the Match.

Snippet taken from a report of the game.

"Rangers can claim with some justification that the superior crafts of their opponents proved less of a stumbling block than their opponents mastery of the arts of body checking, tripping and almost every infringement of the football rule book"

Dirty bastards were the Italians.
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And the referees usually found expensive watches in their pockets after the game.
 
Blueranger45 said:
Feyenoord game was one we should have won if we didn't have Van Honkydonk diving about all over the place

remember a 19-20 year old Van Persie playing in that game as well
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I looked at videos of that a wee while ago. Unbelievably skinny. I’d say some sort of performance / steroid intake not out of the question to get him to his Arsenal physique.
 
albertz81 said:
PSG best team in the competition? They weren't even the best team in France that season.
They finished 4th.

They had some players granted, a young Ronaldinho, Arteta, Anelka. As a team though they weren't up to much.

We should have got past Feyenoord granted. Van Hooijdonk diving and McCann getting himself sent off saw to that



That was the season the team just collapsed from September-November. Even got pumped out the UEFA cup at the first round after being patched out the CL to Kaiserslautern. Team just wasn't up to it that year.
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Kaiserslaurern was a late afternoon kick off I believe for the away tie? Remember watching it after school on Channel 5
 
Blue Lou Boyle said:
1993 - its all ifs buts and maybes but for me the turning point was hateley getting sent off against brugge. And, as much as i loved the big man, he deserved it. He raised his hands and gave the ref an easy decision.

I really think we missed his experience over in marseille. We deserved our point but, really, we needed a win to put ourselves in pole position.
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the pivotal moment was the brugge away game imo.

Miko doing what he done against hearts the week before and sold a goal however regardless of that we should've won that game and it cost us big time.
 
RfcIbrox said:
And the referees usually found expensive watches in their pockets after the game.
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UEFA in fact sanctioned clubs giving gifts to match officials. It was however the value of said gifts which varied greatly. A former work colleague of mine was an assistant ref in the late 80's/90's. He was an assistant at an Anderlecht game, Brian McGinlay being the ref. They all left with a holdall with a few hundred £s worth of sports gear.
 
I've still not watched the 2008 Final back and honestly don't think I ever will.

Remember being gutted at the 2002 Feyenoord game
 
tottie beck said:
I meant in the very first years of European competition. I believe it took a few years for British clubs to be convinced by the idea of European football. As for Rangers I’ve been told Mr Symon didn’t really bother to scout our opponents
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That's very true remember hibs didn't win the league 55/56 but sure they were invited,correct about symon though,but Johnny hubbard who's book I've just finished,mentioned playing Nice,who weren't very nice,and booted them off the park,dont think it was as friendly as some folk presume,I was 8 when watching us play Frankfurt and we had a Great side then, but they destroyed us and in the Final Real destroyed Frankfurt,in its infancy I would agree most teams,concentrated on their own leagues and cup,rather thN European football, but hasn't it changed lol
 
ScouseHairline said:
79 logically looks like we would should have done so much better considering who we'd knocked out to get to Köln.
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I’ve never really agreed with that.

Cologne were German champions. They’d seen off Bayern Munich and Boroussia Monchengladbach to win the title so were clearly no slouches. In fact, I’d say they were always going to be a tougher proposition than PSV, which is how it proved.

And even if we had managed to get past them, I doubt we’d have beaten that Forest side in the semis.

We did well to get to the quarters, but we were a team already in decline so I’ve always felt it’s asking a lot to believe we should have won it that year.
 
HandsomeHead said:
I’ve never really agreed with that.

Cologne were German champions. They’d seen off Bayern Munich and Boroussia Monchengladbach to win the title so were clearly no slouches. In fact, I’d say they were always going to be a tougher proposition than PSV, which is how it proved.

And even if we had managed to get past them, I doubt we’d have beaten that Forest side in the semis.

We did well to get to the quarters, but we were a team already in decline so I’ve always felt it’s asking a lot to believe we should have won it that year.
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I wasn't around then so I'm not really qualified, can only go on other people's stories. I dare say if it was a name like Bayern rather than Köln the revisionism wouldn't be so strong.
 
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