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Wishing on a Red Star. As we have already discussed on this thread, BBC Scotland largely ignored Rangers knocking out Europa League favourites, Borussia Dortmund from the tournament. I do not mind PQ decided our Ladies and Mens Olympic Curlers journeys to winning Gold and Silver medals respectively was deemed more worthy of coverage. I do not mind they decided the Celtic - Bodo Glimp tie in the Europa Conference League was more worthy of live commentary and, I don't mind the machinations at Aberdeen are considered more worthy for the bulk of discussion over the period. All PQ had to do was pay BT Sport the required amount to show the game's goals . They did not. At the start of the season, RAB Cosgrove provided first evidence of BBC Scotland's take on matters Rangers, "ah don't get it, Rangers fans are standing on the side lines, beelin". RAB repeated this line a few times and if you think about it, BBC Scotland were deliberately putting us on the side lines and their reaction was to ignore us and our aspirations. Even Michael Stewart gave up on his weekly 'Trial by Sportscene'; demanding numerous retrospective red cards for Morelos. It could be argued PQ is just reflecting Scots wider society's take on the Club, not one of the SNP's 108 MPs and MSPs support Rangers. Those credentials were flashed again last week when none of the SNP MSPs at Holyrood signed the early day motion offering congratulations to Rangers on their 150th anniversary, including First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon whose constituency includes Ibrox. However, BBC Scotland is contracted by the License Fee to provide a service, even to Rangers supporters. I detect a slight change this week in the wake of the Red Star game. On Thursday night after Midnight, BBC Scotland's last news bulletin carried the Ranger result and having paid BT Sport the necessary fee, showed Rangers three goals with a Kheredine Idessane voiceover. Today, Cosgrove and Cowan mentioned the result at the top of the show, then talked endlessly about last night's Ayrshire Derby. Mention it early, then consign it to the sidelines is the current Immediate Action - coping mechanism. Jum Spence wears his black heart on his Twitter sleeve, he Tweeted 17 times when Dundee United defeated Rangers earlier this season; on Thursday evening he issued one Tweet, "penalty to Rangers". Later, he reinforced this broadcast by claiming, "it succinctly captures events at Ibrox". PQ's journey with the Rangers - Red Star Belgrade tie began with a wishing on a Red Star moment(apologies to Rose Royce). Four days before the game, the headline on the Website was, 'When Red Star beat Rangers on the way to Euro' Glory'. A dozen paragraphs lionising the Red Star team that won the European Cup, particularly since, "they drew and brushed aside Rangers". As the article went on it sharpened, "the Belgrade side routed Rangers on the way to their greatest triumph". The relevance of events 32 years ago were tied into current times with, "BBC Scotland can reveal Red Star are privately pleased to be paired with Rangers". It was the last paragraph before PQ threw in a bit of balance, "nonetheless GVB's men will aim to channel the spirit of 1964 and 2007, two years when Rangers got the better of Red Star". BBC Scotland's various contributors to the numerous shows on Scottish football constantly opine, even bitterly moan about folks missing opportunities to talk up Scottish football. The above preview fails but the real piss on your chips moment arrived during the two and half hour live coverage of the game itself. BIG Dick hosted Richard Foster, Charlie Adam and, Leeanne Chricton. Now, Charlie was enthusiastic but his emotion did not influence Big Dick. After 25 minutes, I tuned in whilst seated in Bar'72. I wanted to find out the reason for the award of our penalty. Rangers are winning two zip and Big Dick is NOT talking up the Scottish game, "we have had twenty five minutes and the ball has been in play for barely sixteen or seventeen minutes, this is not what VAR is for". I was deliriously happy with VAR, everyone around me was in agreement. The fact that PQ cannot be arsed to walk half a mile to the Stadium and participate in the atmosphere of a Scots team achieving a victory that again improves the National co-efficient, is a big part of the problem. Any given Sellik Euro game, we have Big Dick with the Blarney Twins constantly eulogising the green'n'grey hooped heroes, straining to heard over the Stade de Gadd PA banging out the Irish music. VAR had failed Big Dick, lamenting Red Star's offsides constantly but, relief arrived at one minute to ten(four minutes after the game ended) when BBC Scotland's football coverage finished. At half time I tuned in once again and Big Dick did not discuss the first forty-five happenings - two goals, three VAR decisions, a converted penalty, a saved penalty, five minutes added time, ............. etc; the weekend's Scottish Cup fixtures and the Dundee - St Johnstone relegation fight were deemed more important. Could you imagine BBC Scotland doing similar during half time at a Sellik Euro game? On Friday morning, GB's Para-Olympians were front and centre, by Noon the Ayrshire Derby was being previewed but, none of it runs interference on Big Dick's summary before the second half began, "busy first half, Allan McGregor was lucky to get away with a fumble, Ryan Kent's penalty was certainly a controversial one, Red Star also missed a penalty as well as having the ball in the Rangers net twice but not counting, however Rangers are two nil in front and, errrh well errrm that is good for Scottish football" That last line, I am sure as Big Dick uttered it he had his fingers crossed, whilst wishing on his Red Star?

Best leaving soldiering to the professionals.

I don't care what team he chooses. Two things must happen 1. We give Ramsey as close to 90mins as he can manage. 2. We go through to the semis.

Talking of intentionality, i hope that our high defensive line was intentionally perfectly executed. Either it was sheer luck not to concede 3 goals due to their inability to overcome our defensive frailty or tactical genius on our part that prevented them from staying onside.

It looked it. Was a thing of beauty!

it was absolutely intentional.

it was utter filth. Simply ridiculous. only ever seen one pass like it before and that was Kewell for leeds years ago. If we had scored from it no better goal would have ever have been scored.

I don't want to pick on Aribo because we're clearly playing him in the hope he can spark a piece of brilliance despite him being knackered. Kamara looked like he was trying to force his way into the game last night by nipping in here and there. I was pretty sure it was going to be a decent night when the Red Star player tried to shoulder Morelos off the ball and found himself bouncing about 6 feet away from him. They came with a physical mentality and Morelos loves nothing better. They got schooled last night in the fine art of the Buff. Something I've noticed about Jack is that teams in Europe highly respect him. The amount of time and space he gets on the ball is testament to how much of a Tiger he is. Players know not to tangle with him. Tav was simply outstanding, the way he was played last night was very Warburton. He was darting inside and moving around into multiple positions much like how Lee Wallace used to do. Morelos towards the last 20 minutes of the game took up the Prso position where he drifted around the corner of the box and corner flag allowing Tav to slide and cause havok to their marking system. The Morelos/ Tav combo was just too fluid for them. It reminded me of the Tav/Waghorn combo. Hopefully this is GVB admitting Tav is an out and out asset in attack and shouldn't be shackled. Bassey to me is nowhere near polished or finished but he is effective. He keeps it simple and sometimes thats all it takes. He put pressure on the backline late on by trying to keep that ball in but that is just down to his desire. Something he'll learn to control with age. All in all, we are a competent Europa league side. We're not without our flaws obviously, if we didn't have said flaws we'd be champions league not Europa. The away tie will be a dog fight and the players need to stand up to it. ps, GVB dispatching Lundtrum as a sweeper is just genius. He's not stupid or stubborn, he's watching and judging, always.

Forgot to give big Balogun a special mention. Thought he was good last night defensively and holding a good offside line and the goal just topped off a good performance. Its hard for players who have been injured to give everything sometimes. Mentally they might hold back slightly. None of that last night from Leon. Felt he put it all on the line last night.

I thought Kamara had a good game actually but still feel he's a square peg in a round hole to an extent. Problem we have is that Joe Aribo is clearly exhausted so we're losing a bit of impetus in our attacking play too often in games. It was a pity that some minutes couldn't be found (again) for Roofe, Amad, Ramsey or even Lowry.

Great performance again. Up against a team of if you look at their individual CV's are basically old journeymen but perform well as a unit. Usual suspects turned up for us again tonight, Tav excellent, Morelos superb. Kent a constant threat. Lundstram a standout. Not sure about the Kamara attacking midfielder experiment but lets see. Cant wait to see this team who look so good in Europe struggle in Dundee on Sunday.

Was Tavs performance directly related to the formation we used? We need him further up the pitch as that is where he does his best work and playing Lundstrum as a "sweeper" enables this IMO. Same with Bassey. Is almost like we are playing 3-4-3 at times.

Yep they will and are.

I disagree GS. I can credit Kamara when he has done well and there have been times in the last couple of games when he has done that. He also assisted with those essential goals and 6 crucial points. There have also been times when he has been very slack and the only surprise is that he hasn't cost us more goals. I remember someone on here telling me he was a defensive mid which astonished me. A defensive mid should be linking defence to attack and he cannot do that at all. He takes the ball from the defender and immediately gives it back. He seldom plays the ball forward and slows us down horribly, plays short passes or gives the ball away. I will be honest I have no idea what his position is and firmly believe we need better.