Danny 9 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 There's no hard luck story. From kick off last night I knew Sporting were there to be beaten - we were playing astonishingly well, had an assurance, and looked like a side who had the hosts where they wanted them. Even when JCD was clean through, I never felt like that was *the* chance. I always had paranoid fear that it might be a hard luck tale, but once we scored, Sporting were dead and buried. This Rangers side hasn't even punched above its weight - it's simply being managed brilliantly and each player is working his socks off for the cause. Incredibly we are in the semi finals of a major European competition, and truly, we're there on merit. This is no fluke. We've beaten one of the favourites, then a very, very strong dark horse in Sporting. We have every chance of beating the Tallies now, and I'll be gutted if we fail to do so. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poetry_In_Blue 1,043 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Excellent thread and 100% correct. We played some of the best football I've seen for a while, shows what Rangers can do. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briton 394 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 There's no hard luck story. From kick off last night I knew Sporting were there to be beaten - we were playing astonishingly well, had an assurance, and looked like a side who had the hosts where they wanted them. Even when JCD was clean through, I never felt like that was *the* chance. I always had paranoid fear that it might be a hard luck tale, but once we scored, Sporting were dead and buried. This Rangers side hasn't even punched above its weight - it's simply being managed brilliantly and each player is working his socks off for the cause. Incredibly we are in the semi finals of a major European competition, and truly, we're there on merit. This is no fluke. We've beaten one of the favourites, then a very, very strong dark horse in Sporting. We have every chance of beating the Tallies now, and I'll be gutted if we fail to do so. An extremely polished performance. Fair play to Sporting, they had a few good efforts, but in the end we fully deserved the win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
britishempirexi 0 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Excellent thread and 100% correct. We played some of the best football I've seen for a while, shows what Rangers can do. Shows what they can do on an excellent surface! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 9 Posted April 11, 2008 Author Share Posted April 11, 2008 There's no hard luck story. From kick off last night I knew Sporting were there to be beaten - we were playing astonishingly well, had an assurance, and looked like a side who had the hosts where they wanted them. Even when JCD was clean through, I never felt like that was *the* chance. I always had paranoid fear that it might be a hard luck tale, but once we scored, Sporting were dead and buried. This Rangers side hasn't even punched above its weight - it's simply being managed brilliantly and each player is working his socks off for the cause. Incredibly we are in the semi finals of a major European competition, and truly, we're there on merit. This is no fluke. We've beaten one of the favourites, then a very, very strong dark horse in Sporting. We have every chance of beating the Tallies now, and I'll be gutted if we fail to do so. An extremely polished performance. Fair play to Sporting, they had a few good efforts, but in the end we fully deserved the win. There is no denying we were a wee bit fortunate now and again - they had at least 3 efforts which looked in all the way - and my heart stopped as they flew inches by the post. But that's football - we took two chances and they took none. We 100% deserve to be where we are. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 9 Posted April 11, 2008 Author Share Posted April 11, 2008 Excellent thread and 100% correct. We played some of the best football I've seen for a while, shows what Rangers can do. Shows what they can do on an excellent surface! The passing among the midfield and defence was actually outstanding. We looked like the home team in the first half. Yup, we withdrew a little in the second, and they stepped up significantly, but once we scored it was game over. Admittedly Beglin used the word 'mugging' - which I thought was harsh. By the run of play in the second half, yeah, we scored against it, but it was as if the first half had been forgotten. Which was also slightly harshly judged by the pundits at half time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluepeter9 5,167 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Nobody would fancy meeting us on that form last night! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poetry_In_Blue 1,043 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 There was an interesting stat from last night, apparently Sporto had 20 shots, but only 2 were on target, we had 6 shots with 4 on target. In the end the only stat that matters is the goals scored and that went in our favour! :bouncy: :bouncy: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaguy51 941 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Excellent thread and 100% correct. We played some of the best football I've seen for a while, shows what Rangers can do. Shows what they can do on an excellent surface! I've read three or four quotes, including ones from Barry and Walter, saying that the surface was one of the main factors that contributed to the way we passed the ball about. Get a fucking decent groundsman at Ibrox then! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muff 245 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I thought we were going to get beat last night, I thought it was going to be a bit like Bremen but I was completely wrong. I was a bit concerned after Darchevilles early chance that it wasn't going to be our night but everyone stood up and put in a tremendous performance. We played superbly last night and Sporting could still be playing now and not of scored. They are not the team I thought they were. Our European run certainly has not been down to luck, we have taken care of some very good sides. Fiorentina will be very tough but we can beat them. We'll have to be at our best. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
britishempirexi 0 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Excellent thread and 100% correct. We played some of the best football I've seen for a while, shows what Rangers can do. Shows what they can do on an excellent surface! I've read three or four quotes, including ones from Barry and Walter, saying that the surface was one of the main factors that contributed to the way we passed the ball about. Get a fucking decent groundsman at Ibrox then! That's true to an extent but the weather here is alot different. To get anything near that we need the expensive lights and we've had that chat before. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaguy51 941 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Excellent thread and 100% correct. We played some of the best football I've seen for a while, shows what Rangers can do. Shows what they can do on an excellent surface! I've read three or four quotes, including ones from Barry and Walter, saying that the surface was one of the main factors that contributed to the way we passed the ball about. Get a fucking decent groundsman at Ibrox then! That's true to an extent but the weather here is alot different. To get anything near that we need the expensive lights and we've had that chat before. We have mini UV lamps for the goal mouths. We need some Emirates full size pitch ones Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mannan 0 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 word! that team were definetely there for the taking, so fuckin sick of hard luck tales..................... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart_RFC 41 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I thought we were going to get beat last night, I thought it was going to be a bit like Bremen but I was completely wrong. I was a bit concerned after Darchevilles early chance that it wasn't going to be our night but everyone stood up and put in a tremendous performance. We played superbly last night and Sporting could still be playing now and not of scored. They are not the team I thought they were. Our European run certainly has not been down to luck, we have taken care of some very good sides. Fiorentina will be very tough but we can beat them. We'll have to be at our best. This sums up my feelings. I really did think we were going to struggle badly last night, Sporting are a slick-passing team with lots of quality young players and i just felt they would put us under severe pressure and they would eventually get the goal. Never happened like that at all, we controlled the game from the kick off, they had 1 chance that hit the post and a few half chances that went just wide, but apart from that..we held them to hitting 30 yarders all the time and we were the ones with the slick-passing. There wasnt 1 bad performer in a Gers shirt last night and we fully deserved the win. Credit has to go to Walter as well, he takes some amount of flack for his tactics/team selection's at time but he continues to get it spot on. One of the Greatest Rangers managers of all time. It hasnt sunk in for me that we are in the semi-final of a European competition, what i will say is though, im STILL not taking anything for granted as Fiorentina are a good side, and we are minus Ferguson/Thomson first game. Having said all that, this is fast becoming a season to remember Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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