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Rangers had drawn Juventus in the first round of the European Cup, it was curtains because Juve' contained nine members of the Italian world cup squad just returned from Argentina. John Greig was in his first season as Rangers Boss, moved directly from the dressing room to the Manager's hot seat. Ham and Egg decided Derek Johnstone should take over as Club Skipper and return to centre half. In European games, this left Gordon Smith as a loan striker, the left over space in the team was for Sandy Jardine playing Euro sweeper. A credible 1-1 draw in Turin was surpassed by a comfortable two-zip victory at the Stadium, thus Rangers had progressed 3-1 on aggregate against the pre-tournament favourites for the big eared cup. The next favourites were the UEFA Cup holders, PSV Eindhoven and they had NEVER lost a home European match in the Philips Stadion. The first leg was at Ibrox and the scheduled Wednesday evening game had been postponed because of fog. The match kicked-off on the Thursday and finished nil-nil. It could have been so different before half time, Tam Forsyth played two quick one-twos that took him through the high PSV off-side line. He was one on one with the Goalie and managed to shoot high and handsome over the bar. I have the above information from a telephone conversation with Old Man. I had attested at the RMA Sandhurst in the second week of August and had endured ten weeks of character building within the walls of Old College. I had applied to attend Victory College, the Graduates' College and had been accepted; however, Victory College was also responsible for running what was known as, 'the Vicars and Tarts Course'. A short eight weeks commissioning course for professionally qualified Lawyers, Accountants, Clergymen, Veterinarians, Doctors, ........ etc entering the various appropriate administrative Corps as Captains. We marked time in the Queen Ann block house until the accommodation for ninety Cadets became available. My course had already binned 29 applicants in ten short weeks. The Vicars and Tarts had a midweek passing out parade and we were given four days leave, from Monday until Friday morning. Surrey to Harwich then a ferry to the Netherlands. I traveled with Hamish, an Old Etonian whose family owned most of Caithness. He knew nothing of football but enjoyed adventure and cheese. As the snow flurried, we arrived at the temple to Philips electrical prowess to find nearly five thousand Rangers supporters, mostly in short sleeved shirts singing the praises of a 17th century Dutch King. The Dutch inside the Stadion were signing the praises of the Van de Kerkhof brothers, van der Kuijilen, Deijkers, Poortvliet, ......... etc. Spirits were high on the terrace behind the goals. The mercury plummeted within the first minute, PSV drove forward on the flank and a low cross was met by Lubse without breaking stride, his shot found the Rangers net. Honestly, I do not think the majority of Bears registered the goal, they continued to sing. The team quickly found their metre, a Parlane header drew a wonder save from Van Engelen, then he eclipsed it by fisting a Kenny Watson thirty yarder over the bar. Either side of the break, the rookie PSV Keeper finger tipped a DJ nod and scrambled a Forsyth attempt off the line. The break through arrived courtesy of a McLean chip being met by a diving Doddy header. There was half an hour left to play and we were through on away goals, game management please? Two minutes later, PSV restored their lead. A bouncing ball in our box had been met decisively by a Deijikers overhead kick. Rangers were awarded a free kick wide outside the box. McLean lined to cross the ball, instead slipped it right for Watson to drive. DJ provided the deflected header into the roof of the net. Again, it is 2-2 with twenty remaining on the clock; game management please? You know the gig, the entire terrace was heading and kicking every ball clear. We were shouting for every decision. The Rangers goal was under heavy siege then, with less than two minutes to go. DJ towered above everyone to win a defensive header in our box, the ball looped to Gordon Smith who flicked it on the Tommy McLean. The scream was, "hold it, take it in". Calimero saw Bobby Russell making a diagonal run into the PSV half and played it down the line. The scream became, "take it into the corner". Bobby looked up, saw the advancing Keeper and decided to curl the ball fully forty yards around Van Engelen, one bounce and into the back of the net. Hamish wrapped in a Barbour was slumped and burst. Everyone else went into a state of exuberant celebration. Russell's exquisite goal kept me warm for the ensuing eight months in Camberley. I hope we can find a hero tomorrow evening?

My head hurts 😂

Agree and would say the same for Borna.

Exactly right. We often think "the ball went backwards so he isnt offside" but what makes the player onside is a) the backwards pass AND b) the fact he is behind the player The one on Saturday was offside because even though the ball was played backwards, Colak came from an offside position to collect it, makes him offside. The block doesnt change that I don't think. As soon as Matondo gets a touch on it, Colak is offside.

Much better performance (after half-time especially) on Saturday. More fluent, better tempo and we carried more of a threat - even with Jack and Lundstram in the XI. Hopefully a sign players are getting sharper and starting to gel. I thought Lundstram was our best player but was enthused to see Matondo look more dangerous and I also felt Tavernier played better than of late.

He isn't even getting minutes against didies with 5 subs. Very definition of surplus to requirements. Shame he did chip in with decent numbers.

I'm thoroughly enjoying Manchester United's problems. Long may this continue.

Don't care about what rules say. 🤪🤣

At first yes but it is last played by a rangers player when it comes off Rabbi. He is offside at that point.

Okay he came back from where he was and I know two or more wrongs don't make a right but the main stand linesman got more than one off-side decisions wrong and was a total nightmare(as much as the referee was too).

We always have a chance. We have beaten better sides.

No doubt it'll be a tough match. I'm more concerned about our defensive lapses than how we'll do up front. I think we need to win tomorrow if we want to go through. Can't wait for kick off.

Shitting myself. Don't see how we have a hope in hell. Will be epic when we go through.

The player also needs to be behind the player passing the ball, which is usually the case, but wasnt on Saturday

The thing that makes it more difficult to select Lundstram as MOTM is that he just makes everything look so easy. Still gets my nod as he strolled it.

Normally when a ball goes backwards its to a player behind the attacker so onside but it's the being behind that makes it onside. It's all about where the reciever of the ball is when it is played not direction of the ball. Not sure about whether it being a block makes it different. I didn't know about the backwards thing until looking into it yesterday i must admit.

I’ve just watched a recording of the Brentford game and people can talk about all the fancy systems and tactics but all Brentford did was get in the United players faces and made tackles rather than all this tracking back nonsense

Normally when I have an EPL game on, I half watch it but I was fully paying attention to the Chelsea v Spurs match. Very enjoyable viewing and the icing on the cake was the double spat between the two managers. Chelsea should've won.

List in order of value per game, per league - Top 10: Rank League Country UEFA Rank Number of Live Games Value Per Game 1. Premier League England 1st 200 £8.00m 2. Bundesliga Germany 4th 306 £3.02m (€3.59m) 3. La Liga Spain 2nd 380 £2.18m (€2.60m) 4. Serie A Italy 3rd 380 £2.05m (€2.44m) 5. Ligue 1 France 5th 380 £1.28m (€1.53m) 6. English Football League England N/A 168 £708,000 7. Scottish Premiership Scotland 9th 54 £555,000 8. Primeira Liga Portugal 6th 306 £493,000 (€588,000) 9. Brasileirao Brazil N/A 380 £434,000 (R$2.734m) 10. Major League Soccer United States N/A 476? £430,000 ($525,000)

Chicken feed. Why do they bother? If free to market it's own games, Rangers could probably negotiate a similar deal by itself.