Every once in a while – but not often enough around these parts – an opportunity like this presents itself. A chance to creep up behind history and tap it gently on the shoulder.
And last night in Leipzig, without doing anything spectacular, Rangers managed to tiptoe their way to within 90 minutes of a Europa League final in Seville, with the kind of a disciplined, doggedly defensive performance which might have brought a smile to the face of the last man to lead them so far.
Yes, RB Leipzig finally broke through five minutes from time to claim a one-goal lead heading into next week’s second leg.
But Walter Smith would have signed for a 1-0 defeat before a ball had been kicked in Germany. And Giovanni van Bronckhorst didn’t need a dark blue cardigan to pay homage to the great man on a night when his side did what they needed to do just to stay in the fight for another shot at glory, 14 years on from their last tilt at one of UEFA’s titles.
With their star striker in the casualty ward along with his most able understudy, logic dictates this last-four tie was probably meant to be as high as Rangers could possibly hope to soar in European football’s rarefied atmosphere. After all, how can they be expected to keep on smashing through glass ceilings in this competition when they don’t even have a Roofe?
It was up to van Bronckhorst to come up with a tactical plan which might be capable of cancelling out his own rotten bad luck.
As suspected, he resisted the obvious temptation of deploying Fashion Sakala as a like for like replacement for those he had to leave behind.
Rather than ask the Zambian to take on responsibilities which have previously proved to be beyond his skill-set, van Bronckhorst opted to rip up his own Rangers blueprint and come up with something completely different on a
needs-must basis.
The very idea of a false nine may normally belong in the world of almond milk lattes and bushy beards but here was the Rangers manager rolling it out like a huge dice in real life and on the biggest stage imaginable.
With Sakala left on the bench along with the rest of the reinforcements, it was Joe Aribo who was plucked out of his comfort zone and asked to take on every hipster’s favourite role.
The Ibrox boss was banking on Aribo’s physicality and wizardly close control to help the Nigerian act as a central focal point for the attack, while allowing Ryan Kent and Scott Wright to apply the jet burners down both flanks.
For his part, Wright’s two-goal contribution at Motherwell on Saturday clearly tipped the balance in his favour at just the right moment. And yet this was a million miles removed from a weekender in deepest darkest Lanarkshire.
This was a VIP pass into what felt very much like the centre of football’s universe. It always does on Thursday nights when Rangers are in town.
And yet this was unlike anything which had come before on this roller coaster run to the last four.
Yes, Aribo was the furthest advanced midfield man but that was not exactly saying much.
In fact, he rarely made it across the halfway line during a first 45 minutes which seemed to baffle and frustrate the Germans in equal measure.
What would Walter do? Van Bronckhorst was even wearing a sleeveless cardigan down on the touchline as he instructed his team to sit deep and defend in packs of nine.
This was the kind of performance which Smith used to take his side all the way to Manchester.
And the lack of space afforded to Leipzig seemed to stymie the home players and stop them in their tracks. Only twice in that opening half did they get so much as a sight at Allan McGregor’s goal and on both occasions, they were snuffed out by some colossus defending.
First Calvin Bassey blocked dangerman Christopher Nkunku 10 yards out and then, on the half-hour mark James Tavernier threw his body on the line to charge down a thumping effort from the lively Angelino at McGregor’s back post.
In between times Connor Goldson executed a perfectly timed tackle just when Konrad Lamier was all set to tug on the trigger. But, not only did Rangers make it safely to the break, they were actually starting to settle into this shift to such an extent that they were looking perfectly comfortable out there.
Yes, they were sending the home crowd to sleep but no matter.
Van Bronckhorst headed inside with the scores level which was precisely what he was after when he cobbled this side together.
But the interval brought a change of plan. Aribo was told to play further up the pitch with Wright and Kent dropping deeper to make up a midfield four. It worked too.
For the first time, Leipzig’s defence began to creak whenever Aribo banged on its door and Kent might have edged Rangers in front when he flashed a shot across the face of goal.
But that was as close as van Bronckhorst’s side were to come on a night which was built on what they were doing at the other end of the pitch.
Yes, Angelino’s stunning volley five minutes from time means there is some attacking work to be done at Ibrox next week.
But by then van Bronckhorst should at least have one of his strikers back in contention for a starting place.
He may look back upon this one as the night the really hard work was done.
