No gubbing, no glory; no punters, no points (Nerazzurri … 1 GERS … 0)

I almost forgot. It wasn’t til I saw Peter Lovenkrands homing in on that first-half ball into the box that I remembered: When watching any game from the San Siro on TV, you can’t see the crowd behind either goal anyway. The bottom tiers at each end are raised off the ground, above the height of the crossbar. All you usually see apart from the players and a few stewards, when Shevchenko, Adriano or whoever hammers the ball into a San Siro net, is a row of still banners.

So when we got near the Inter goal tonight - on one or two more occassions than we were maybe expecting - the fact there were some 85,000 less people in the stadium than there could be did not in any way ruin the sheer cardiac-wrenching nature of the image. Rangers might be about to score at the San Siro. The heart was through the jumper because the scene was perfectly set. You can never hear the crowd over the TV anyway because yer too busy screaming.

We didn’t score.

Inter did - but only once.

No more and no less than we deserved.

Neither extreme was realised tonight. Neither the hero-making draw nor the “get back in yer box” thrashing came to fruition. Only the score-line makes the former seem more likely than the latter. The hard facts of football life and our long experience of Champions League dynamics mean we Teds have no delusions. We got what we deserved tonight.

Och, most football matches pretty much end up with everyone getting what they deserved. I only mention it because occasions such as this particular encounter tend to get folk all confused. A team expected to be thrashed does not get thrashed - suddenly their fans start thinking they were unlucky to lose at all. We weren’t unlucky. If anything, we rode our luck at times. But we weren’t half bad either.

We passed the ball tidily for long periods. Kyrgiakos was Man Of The Match by a mile - outstanding in temperament, application and commitment. Bazza looked the part and played the part. Maybe it was the empty stands but The Gers were certainly not intimidated.

We won’t kid ourselves, however. Inter clearly stepped it up a gear after the break - going in at half-time at 0-0 was brilliant for us but a last warning for them. Inter gave it large just long enough to get their goal and then, as in the first half, went back to playing a game all about preserving physical and psychological energy levels for this weekend’s clash with Juventus. You got the feeling they could have grabbed another goal if they’d needed it. Far, far better teams than The Gers XI tonight have lost 1-0 to Internazionale down the years.

We weren’t “lucky” in that Cruz hit his first-half penalty against the post. The big Argentine just missed - that’s all. Not good enough from him. Ronald mainatins the guy dived and that our keeper got the ball first - yes on both counts but Ron also made contact with the guy’s legs and gave him the chance to dive. It was a rash decision by the keeper. Even if, as The Mulleted One maintains, the ref apologised after the game (He was probably saying “sorry, I HAD to do that”) it certainly looked like a penalty - but everything worked out in the end. Ronald wasn’t “lucky” to stay on the pitch - there were two Gers on the goal-line, Aye Ready to clear.

But neither were we “unlucky” when Pizarro’s free-kick deflected and wrong-footed Waterreus on it’s way into our net early in the second half. Had our wall not jumped the ball wouldn’t have got under. Had Klos been in goals perhaps the save would have been made??! So there’s no misfortune - perhaps only bad team selection by our manager.

We weren’t “lucky” when Solaris had the miss of the tournament (that’s the tournament PROPER - Aiden McGeady had the miss of the qualifying rounds) - he was just really slack with his finish. We weren’t lucky when Obafeme Matins’ super-early tap-in was ruled out for offside - the amazingly strong and quick Nigerian should have been flyer than he was. But all these chances show Inter were able to open us up in ways we could not reciprocate.

Dado is clearly unfit - his pre-match fitness test was probably one of those ones you just need to get 40% to pass (for Stephen Thompson it’s 95% or fail) but still does more than any of our other options. His areial battles with Materazzi and Samuel were superb. Yet, in the kill zone, he Buffel and Lovenkrands all showed a lack of desire to gamble tonight, to make a run and throw yerself at the ball anyway. Jim Forrest remains the only Rangers to have scored in the San siro. Dado, Pete and Tommy were each fantastic in running the opposition down and picking the ball up, challenging for stuff around the box and geting crosses in BUT when we did get our one or two good crosses of the night into that six-yard area, no-one wanted to risk it all for glory.

But, then again, that’s maybe the downside of playing in an empty stadium. A few drunk corporate Bears giving it laldy is amusing when ye hear it across Sky Sports Extra but it’s maybe just a bit depressing when it’s echoing around a vast concrete cathedral like the San Siro as you’re trying to have the game of yer life. Again, not unlucky - because we benefitted from not having 50,000 or so Milanese screaming at the ref and linesmen and our players. Inter stayed stuck in cruise control perhaps because their only vocal support was stuck on a conourse outside the ground.

We played out our skins and Inter did not. Inter have bigger fish to fry, we do not. Inter can’t explain losing a match like this - we can, very easily. It’s a sign of our place in the world that this was a good night’s work for Rangers.

The gulf in finance and personnel means that The Gers can come away from Inter in Milan with a single-goal defeat and heads held high. The unhealthy start to our domestic campaign means the performance in the San Siro is seen, by many, as a vast improvement and pleasant surprise. The past thrashings we’ve taken abroad, particularly in Champions League tussles, mitigates against pained reactions to this particular loss of three points. I was equally built up about our trips to Juve, Amstedam and Old Trafford - I would gladly go back to each of those Champions League nights and change the score to 1-0 to the home team.

The other result in the group - which was every bit as sensational as the Inter-Gers game was predictable - keeps us joint-second. When the draw was made we dared to think it would be between ourselves and Porto for the runner-up spot behind Inter. Artmedia’s amazing 3-goal comeback and victory in Do Dragao is, on the face of it, great for The Rangers. It kicks Porto in the teeth. But it also means the Slovakians are having the season of their dreams - just in time for their double-header with the better half of Glasgow.

Hopefully Artmedia have now got famous enough to keep The Gers players on their toes for the upcoming double-header. There is a real danger that we can raise our game enough to keep it close against Inter but then delude ourselves we’re team enough to walk all over Artmedia. Surely the result from Portugal tonight will kill off any such instinct. Surely any idea of the games against the Slovakians being “no-win”, of Rangers achieving nothing but the avoidance of humiliation if they were to take all six points from their next two CL games, has evaporated just in time.

Surely McLeish now knows his best team, his best formation. It’s Rodriguez with Soto at the back - it’s Buffel with Prso up front - it’s Alan Hutton at right back as soon as he’s fit and Nando back in beside Bazz. Namouchi til Hemdani’s fit and Lovenkrands giving Bernard something to aim at down the left. It’s 4-4-2. Surely our team are professional and ambitious enough now to know that two victories against the fourth seeds could put us into the next Round of the Champions League for the first time in our history … and with two games to spare.

One complaint about McLeish though - does he really think it was wise to rest so many of our best players for a Champions League match, even if we are up against the mighty black-and-white striped ones next? Okay, I know the Dunfermline game is more important but if he’d dared to put Stephen “Adriano” Thompson on from the start or give Bob “Figo” Malcolm the first 45, maybe the reserves could actually have stole a point or three from this strange, strange evening…