ONLY a handful of Scottish club managers have achieved footballing immortality in continental competition. It’s been a long wait since Willie Waddell won the European Cup Winners’ Cup with Rangers in 1972, five years before Sir Alex Ferguson won the same competition in 1983 as Aberdeen boss.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst can add his name to the list of Scottish football greats by guiding Rangers past Eintracht Frankfurt in Wednesday’s Europa League final. The Dutchman has already joined Jim McLean, Martin O’Neill and Walter Smith by getting a Scottish team this far in a European competition, but true greatness awaits him and his players.
Few predicted Rangers would make this season’s Europa League final. After coming through a challenging group that included Lyon, Brondby and Sparta Prague, the Scottish champions were paired against the competition favourites – Borussia Dortmund – in the first knockout round. Their run was expected to end there.
From Balogun against Brøndby, to Lundstram downing Leipzig.
With a lot of Alfredo Morelos and James Tavernier in between! ✨
⚽️ Here are the goals which landed Rangers a place in Seville…#UELfinal | #UEL pic.twitter.com/8cruF0oLrJ
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 16, 2022
However, a remarkable 4-2 victory at the Westfalenstadion highlighted Rangers’ quality and momentum built from there. Ibrox became a fortress as victories over Red Star Belgrade, Braga and RB Leipzig set up Wednesday’s meeting with Eintracht Frankfurt in Seville. Approximately 100,000 Rangers fans are expected in the Spanish city for one of the biggest games in the club’s history.
While Rangers have Europa League pedigree, reaching the round of 16 in each of the last two seasons, their run to this season’s final goes against the grain of recent trends. Over the last few decades, it has become harder and harder for Scottish teams to achieve any sort of success on the continent.
Europe’s elite have slowly but surely closed the door on the smaller nations, making it harder to qualify for the Champions League and Europa League. Even after finishing second in the Scottish Premiership in 2019/20, Rangers had to go through three rounds of qualifiers just to reach the Europa League group stage. Celtic faced the same number of qualifying rounds to reach the Champions League group stage as Scottish champions.
EUROPA LEAGUE – RANGERS SPECIALS
Continental football has threatened to leave Scottish football behind, not because the sport in the country is substandard, but because the most powerful clubs have decided amongst themselves that this is how the European game has looked. Only last week it was confirmed that two Champions League places per season will be awarded to countries with the most successful clubs, closing the door that little bit further on nations like Scotland.
https://twitter.com/RangersNick1/status/1522365456128032768?s=20&t=jIjLQURP8SADzsrpl_gKSw
It’s against this backdrop that Rangers have made this season’s Europa League final. This context means victory over Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday would be the greatest achievement by a Scottish team since Ferguson’s Aberdeen beat Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final 39 years ago.
“There’s a lot of excitement around the club,” Aaron Ramsey, on loan at Rangers from Juventus, said. “We’ve put ourselves in an unbelievable position and we’ve produced some memorable results and performances throughout this campaign. Now it’s just one step further. We’re there. So we have a chance of creating history with this club. We’ve adapted our game plan throughout the competition. Now it’s just about putting it into one game and giving absolutely everything to walk off that pitch with the trophy.”
Every Rangers player that takes to the pitch at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan will do so with the weight of history on their shoulders. Rangers, one of the biggest and most historic clubs anywhere, have only ever won a European trophy once before, and that was all the way back in 1972. But victory would transcend the Ibrox club. Their glory would signify something even greater.
