\n<\/p>\n
Is there one to rival them in the Rangers ‘odditorium’? Club historians will have plenty to say on that. <\/p>\n
In more recent memory, the Giovanni van Bronckhorst side of 2021-22 are worth a mention. They got to the Europa League final that season, only losing on penalties. <\/p>\n
They beat the Borussia Dortmund of Mats Hummels, Raphael Guerreiro and Jude Bellingham then the RB Leipzig of Konrad Laimer, Josko Gvardiol, Dani Olmo and Dominik Szoboszlai.<\/p>\n
One missed penalty in the final shootout against an Eintracht Frankfurt side later broken up and sold on for serious money was all that stopped them. <\/p>\n
All of those massive nights against heavy-hitters in Europe and they had to settle for second place in the Scottish Premiership to Ange Postecoglou’s new Celtic team.<\/p>\n
There are big differences between that team and the Rangers of today, though. Van Bronckhorst’s lot fought hard domestically, losing the league by just four points and winning the Scottish Cup.<\/p>\n
They were never as far off the pace in Scotland as the current crew, and never displayed the kind of incredible turbulence that has been so pervasive this season.<\/p>\n
Winston Churchill described the geo-politics of the old Soviet Union as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma – a description that could be stolen and applied to the twin personalities of this Rangers outfit.<\/p>\n
Fenerbahce, like others before them, afforded Rangers time and space on the not unreasonable premise that a team not good enough to score against second-tier opposition in Scotland was hardly likely to cause them too many problems.<\/p>\n
Big mistake. Huge. They reckoned without the Jekyll and Hyde, the domestic Rangers and the European Rangers, the Rangers who have the devil’s own job in breaking down defensive teams in the Premiership but who are like kids in candy stores in Europe when there is space and an ability to counter-attack.<\/p>\n
Dessers typified the effort: strutting, lethal and head and shoulders ahead of more celebrated strikers down the other end.<\/p>\n
Ferguson and his coaches deserve huge credit for a formation shift to three at the back, which worked well. For sending their team out with belief when those players had reason not to believe. <\/p>\n
And for delivering a massive result that sets up a pulse-quickening night at Ibrox next Thursday. Bonkers, but brilliantly so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n