Same old, same old

“Same old, same old” … an easy phrase to remember, a repetitive phrase, a boring phrase: Just as Rangers in Govan in a UEFA tournament can be grimly easy for the opponents, sickeningly repetitive for the older punters and just plain boring for all concerned.

I’ve gone way past angry. I’ve done that too often - I’m all Angried out. I’m just BORED by it now.

It is, indeed, always just exactly THE SAME: It’s always just inside or just outside the box, it’s always a shot into the bottom corner, it always seems to take an age to go in, it always brings a muted, muffled roar from the travelling support and it always, always, ALWAYS ends our impersonation of a competent European side.

Just running through the highlights of recent years in my head: Zizkov’s clincher came from the 16-20 yard range last October. Monaco shattered our Champions League pretensions a few seasons back when Marco Simone smacked one in, under Christiansen, from the same distance…

Alania Vladikavkaz banged their away goal in low and hard from the 18-yard line in another qualifier. Moscow Dynamo grabbed one when we had our wee UEFA Cup run in 2001/2002 - though I can’t remember how that ball crossed the line exactly.

Bayern Munich’s equaliser in the champions League was a deflected free-kick. Both Mendieta and Lopez struck from the box’s edge for Valencia.

Lacatus actually lobbed his in from the edge of the area for Steau Bucharest in 1988 - that other Steau player (Ille, perhaps) slapped his goal into the Broomloan end from the suburbs of the penalty box a decade later … Gary Mcallister for Leeds in “The battle of Britain” (what a volley that was) and even Allessandro Altobelli for Internazionale when the Milanese went down 3-1 at The Palace in my first ever European match (october 1984)… nope, actually … can’t remember exactly how that one went in either.

Yeah - most of them were spectacular. I’ve missed hunners out (Juve’s FOUR for example - Maribor’s one … Ono for Feyenoord) but they all merge into one big away goal for me. The nights when we don’t concede an away goal - Fenerbache, PSG, Galatasaray in recent years - the opposition inevitably don’t concede a “home” one to us. I’m sick of it.

But, wait a minute, did we not do Leeds over the two legs. Did we not put SEVEN past Alania Vladikavkaz in the deepest bowels of Russia - did we not give Dynamo a similair skudding in Moscow. did we not hammer Maribor 6-1 on aggregate. Did we not beat PSG on penalties.

Is the reason Scotland have two representatives in the Champions League qualifiers not mainly down to the fact that, over the five years BEFORE smelltic broke their twenty year Cannae-Get-Past-Christmas duck, Rangers have succesfully negated the effect of an Ibrox away goal almost as often as they’ve suffered by it.

Another common feeling is watching Rangers play out their skins in the second leg of a tie which, by all accounts, they should fail in because they lost a goal at home.

This IS a bad situation. Kobenhavn are now undoubtedly the favourites to go through. After our early opener was scrambled home by our own Dane, we failed to look threatening again, actually fell to pieces between midfield and defence and often looked like we’d lose a few away goals rather than just the one. But the real railing and wailing can wait til after the return in Denmark. There will be plenty of it too, as the after-effects of failure to qualify for the Champions League will indeed be serious. I think I’ll just hang on, however, before getting steamed into The Bears.

McLeish has earned our trust for at least the duration of the next fortnight - even if the performance and tactics last night did not - but, more than this, I think the collective Rangers psyche knows a whole lot more about Europe than the chaps from Carlsberg-land. They’ll be getting a nose bleed, we should be getting angry.

Watching The Gers in Europe down the years has also proved a less-than-perfect home result isn’t - much as it may feel so at this moment - the end of the line. Like the strangely-shaped number seven on Erik Mykland’s back last night, there’s still a huge question mark over this tie. If I’m a little more comprehensive with my European recollections, I have to admit that The Gers do sometimes come up with the right answer … even if the calculations which get us there can be a bit ropey.

… Gothenburg’s goal in the 97/98 qualifier second leg … Parma’s Uruguayan striker in the first leg of the 98/99 UEFA Cup game …

GERS: Klos, Ross, Moore, Khizanishvili, Ball, Ricksen, Ferguson, Arteta, de Boer, Lovenkrands, Mols.

Subs Not Used: McGregor, Nerlinger, Malcolm, Vanoli, Berg.

Goals: Lovenkrands 7.

Booked:Bazza Fergie

FCK: Raboczki, Rooba, Svensson, Norregaard, Albrechtsen, Tobiasen, Mykland, Nielsen, Roll Larsen, Jonsson, Zuma.

Subs Not Used: Kihlstedt, Zivkovic, Bisgaard, Svard, Traore, Bech, Moller.

Booked: Roll Larsen.

Goals: Jonsson 51.

Att: 47,401

Ref: Manuel Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez (Spain).

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Published:
08.15.03 / 5pm
Category:
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