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

Getting to a Euro quarter final or further seemed quite normal in the 1960's and early 70's.

Scotland had a wealth of talent back then.
 
Great post OP. Looking back on the 1967 CWC is almost mind numbing to know that, not only did we deprive ourselves of the talents of Forrest & McLean after Berwick but the in form Alex Willoughby was completely overlooked by Symon for the Final. Incredible.
 
One question; will winning the Europa League this season be the greatest achievement by a Scottish club ever?
I think it would be considering the amount of games we’ve played, teams we’ve played and still potentially teams we’ve still to play. Not to mention where we’ve been as a club over the last 10 years!!
 
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 think we could have won it. Forest won 2 consecutive European cups with a solid rather than outstanding side. We had the scalp of Juventus the favourites and PSV. the British teams were doing well in the tournament round about his time. One of my greatest memories is being present at the Ranger 2 Juventus 0 game, an incredible evening.
 
Felixrfc161090 said:
I've still not watched the 2008 Final back and honestly don't think I ever will.
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it's actually worse than i remembered. The use of the subs was absolutely galling

72min - they score
77min - papac off for Novo after 5mins of clipboard nonsense
80min - hemdani off for mcculloch
86mins - whittaker off for Boyd

They made a sub at 93 mins.

It was as though we were the ones in the lead and trying to waste time. The game management in the 2nd half was appalling imo
 
Remember being at the Villareal game in 2006 and just thinking Riquelme was one of the best players I have ever seen.
 
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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An under rated point on Koln that season was their loss on Flohe, their captain & midfield playmaker after Big Tam Forsyth broke his ribs.

If he wasn’t injured for the Forest match I think Koln would’ve won the tournament.

He was class & very energetic too.
 
instructor said:
I think we could have won it. Forest won 2 consecutive European cups with a solid rather than outstanding side. We had the scalp of Juventus the favourites and PSV. the British teams were doing well in the tournament round about his time. One of my greatest memories is being present at the Ranger 2 Juventus 0 game, an incredible evening.
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Forest won because they had Brian Clough.

Clough v Greig?

Sorry, it’s no contest.
 
toobl said:
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.
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This is one I’d add to the op instantly.
After beating Kiev and Gornik we had every right to fancy our chances.
Steaua were an outstanding outfit but too much went against us after beating the Poles.
We lost Butcher to a broken leg in November when McCoist succumbed to a knee injury only a week before, it looked grim.
Incredibly, McCoist got himself fit enough to play in the first leg in Romania.
Steaua were a real good team, Hagi and Lacatus were top notch.
There was no shame in losing to them but we shouldn’t have.
 
HandsomeHead said:
Forest won because they had Brian Clough.

Clough v Greig?

Sorry, it’s no contest.
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To be honest, Greig deserved a bit of respect after beating Juventus and PSV.
It could easily be argued that these two were better teams than Cologne and they certainly wouldn’t have feared Forest.
 
Brilliant thread! We done a show the other night on the run to the 1961 ECWC final. Unbelievable that we beat a very decent Monchengladbach side 11-0 on aggregate (0-3 then 8-0 at Ibrox).
Totally agree with the posters who are saying we’ve underachieved in Europe
 
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