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.
Anybody have any other years of what might have been, some fantastic Rangers teams and performances, was fun delving into the history books there.
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.............
Anybody have any other years of what might have been, some fantastic Rangers teams and performances, was fun delving into the history books there.