No hoops for Bursa tommorow night

[1st_Jan_1994 4,868]

I know it was mentioned in another thread about 10 minutes ago, but I've made a new thread with a link.

Fair enough if they don't want to wear green and white hoops out of respect for their hosts, but I don't like the way their manager said there's no need for any extra tension (like we are going to run on the pitch and lynch them)

Anyway...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rangers/9042380.stm

Bursaspor will not wear their green-and-white hooped strip, similar to that of Celtic, when they take on Rangers.

"We will wear our Ajax-type strip, the same as we did against Valencia," said coach Ertugrul Saglam ahead of the Champions League tie at Ibrox.

"We expect to see controlled aggression from our players but there is no need to increase the tension.

"We want to play hard and play to the maximum, but without any unnecessary provocation. That is our way."

Bursaspor midfielder Ivan Ergic, who was in the Basle side that knocked Rangers' fierce rivals Celtic out of the Champions League in 2002-03 season, added: "We have a strip that resembles the Celtic strip but we haven't come here to provoke anyone.

"We have three or four different coloured strips and the coach has told me we won't wear the Celtic-type one. That's a sign that we don't want to antagonise anyone. We just want to play fair football and enjoy the game."

While Rangers were drawing 0-0 with Manchester United at Old Trafford on match day one, Bursaspor crashed 4-0 at home to Valencia.

We are not here to be an underdog and lose the game. We will try hard to get something

Ivan Ergic

However, Saglam would not concede that his team and Rangers are vying for third place in the group and entry into the Europa League.

"In our first game we had an unexpected 4-0 defeat," he said.

"It didn't reflect our performance. That was due to inexperience and we have five important games now. We will try and improve and get better results.

"We will try and win against Rangers but we know they drew with Manchester United so it's clear anything can happen.

"We are not treating this as a third-fourth placed play-off. We still want to remain in the Champions League after Christmas but if that is not possible then of course we would like to be third in the group."

Ergic was similarly determined to make up for the embarrassment against Valencia.

"We started with a 4-0 loss and that is not good," said the Serbian. "This is a chance to make it better.

"We are not here to be an underdog and lose the game. We will try hard to get something, especially after that first result in the section.

"We've watched the games Rangers have played. We think we know how they play. I don't want to go into details about them, but we are ready to face them.

"Our season is going really well. We are first in the league so we must be doing something right.

"The Champions League, of course, is a totally different thing. It's the top level in Europe so the demands are greater.

"Whether the fans expect us to finish above Rangers or not, I don't know. This is a very difficult group and of course we don't want to be last.

"As a club and a team, we have expectations ourselves. Rangers are a good team but of course it is not impossible that we can finish above them in the group."

[Millsyrfc1 13]

Hopefully this top brings them as bad a game as it did against valencia.

[HooliGoon 1]

Sounds scared te me. Only hoops you'll see will be scum coming te see how REAL football is played. WATP!

[TravelingWilBEARy 4,319]

That's ruined the best chance for a team playing in green and white hoops to win away in the Champions League.

[green hools16 0]

This is the hoop

[TravelingWilBEARy 4,319]

Shouldn't be too hard to beat if they have 2 women playing for them.

[RFC55 104,160]

Good job by the establishment

[MelbourneGer 0]

Is that samaras on the right?

[KarlPilkington 0]

typical BBC - A non story but it mentions Celtic so goes to second top sports story in the country!

[BeautifulSeas 10]

Is that samaras on the right?

It doesn't even look real. What a funny looking "chick"