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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Mark Walker

Giovanni van Bronckhorst avoids same fate as last manager with worst Champions League tag

RANGERS are now the worst team in Champions League history after their lamentable group stage campaign after relieving Dinamo Zagreb of the most unwanted record in football.

But Giovanni van Bronckhorst has at least avoided the fate of the last manager to coach a club to such a horrific record...Dinamo axed manager Krunoslav Jurcic just minutes after their last group game defeat in 2011.

Rangers slumped out of Europe after a 3-1 home loss to Ajax with a risible record of six defeats, having conceded 22 goals and scored just twice to make them officially the worst team since the Champions League was formed in 1992.

Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb created the record in 2011/12 when they also lost all six games in a group which also featured Ajax, along with Real Madrid and Lyon.

But their final game in the group saw them crash to a disgraceful 7-1 home defeat to Lyon which eliminated Ajax and caused the Dutch side to demand an inquiry from UEFA.

Dinamo boss Jurcic was summoned to the boardroom and handed his P45 almost immediately after the game as chief executive Zdravko Mamic revealed: "The board convened straight after the game and we decided to part company with Jurcic because this was an embarrassing end to our interest in Europe this season.

"We have to find a way to make it up to the fans. This is not cheap talk, we had long-term plans with Jurcic and we discussed the future at lunch this afternoon. But we cannot stand for a result like that."

Jurcic remarkably went on to become manager of Zagreb again the following year before again being sacked once more following a defeat to Austria Vienna in the Europa League play-off round. He went on to manage Maribor, Saudi Arabia and Al-Nasr in the UAE.

He later went on to claim there was 'something not normal' about his final game in the 7-1 defeat to Lyon where it was 1-1 at half time and the French side needed to win by six goals to qualify, despite only previously having scored just two goals in the group stages.

Jurcic said: "Anyone who knows anything about football knows that match wasn't right. I don't want to be taking skeletons out of the closet, but I was the only one who paid the price for it."

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