Rangers on the Brink of History

Rangers’ remarkable UEFA Cup run continued last night with a stunning 2-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon. The Light Blues will now face Italian outfit Fiorentina in a two legged affair, for a place in the Final at the City of Manchester stadium against either Bayern Munich or Zenit St Petersburg.

The Gers survived an early scare after Leidson struck Allan McGregor’s left hand upright, but the Portugese posed little threat after that and were generally confined to long range efforts. After a tight first half, Jean Claude Darcheville pounced on the hour mark to send the travelling Rangers support into delirium. Sporting, now requiring two goals to progress, pushed forward with more urgency but Rangers held firm and sealed the tie in the 90th minute after Whittaker danced through the tiring Lisbon defence to end matters. The two outstanding performers last night were the rugged but impregnable Carlos Cuellar, who must surely be due a call up to the Spanish national squad, and the Ulsterman Steven Davis, whose cross led to Rangers crucial opening goal. The Ballymena man has slotted in seamlessly to the first team and has formed a formidable partnership with Barry Ferguson in the middle of the park. His neat passing and tireless running are perfect attributes for Smith’s preferred tactical set up, and every Rangers fan will be hoping his loan move from Fulham is eventually made permanent.

Rangers are by no means a pretty side to watch, but they are ruthlessly efficient. Walter Smith rarely gets his tactics wrong and must get enormous credit for navigating the team through a hectic fixture period. There surely cannot be a team in Europe who have played more games this season than the light blues. Indeed, with a healthy lead in the SPL and a quarter final date with Partick Thistle in the Scottish Cup, Rangers are still on course for an historic quadruple, a feat which would guarantee the current team legendary status. Whilst there is obviously still a long way to go for that, what is certain is that the pendulum has well and truly swung towards the blue half of Glasgow and the misery of the Paul Le Guen era has finally been completely erased.As they say in Govan, “OH THE BLUEBELLS ARE BLUE, ALL THE BLUEBELLS ARE BLUE…..”