Barry Ferguson is comforting himself with the belief that his beloved club are only in the Champions League history books because they were drawn in the roup of Death.
After watching their side lose out to Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Barcelona supporters of Viktoria Plzen may be able to offer a counter argument to the former Alloa boss.
When the Champions League draw was made most bears gave their side a decent chance of qualifying for the last 16 of the competition.
Fortress Ibrox would deliver nine points, maybe Liverpool would snatch a draw but the Union Bears would frighten the life out of Salah and Co.
With master tactician Giovanni van Bronckhorst in the dug out and fresh from masterminding the defeat of PSV Eindhoven there would be points gathered on the road, certainly from away to Ajax.
Two months later it has all gone flat with Ferguson reeling off the excuses to Daily Record readers:
I’m not going to lie. I hate the label that has been attached to Rangers this week.
I am sure the players who have branded the worst team ever in the Champions League- it hurts me to even write such a sentence – hate it even more. And I am not here to hold their hands or make excuses for some of the performances that have contributed to it. But what I will say is this: some people need to get real and have a look at the quality of opposition Rangers were up against.
Liverpool- three finals in the last five years, winning one of them. Napoli- top of Serie A and the form team in Europe this season, even if they did lose at Anfield on Tuesday. Those two teams are absolutely top notch. Either of them could win the whole thing and they’ll certainly be looking to go deep into the competition.
They are a level above the other team in the group, Ajax, but make no mistake, they are also a top class outfit and would have got through many of the other groups had they not been unfortunate enough to land Liverpool and Napoli. So that, for me, is a huge factor in Rangers ending up where they ended up.
Ajax lost 15 goals in their four other group matches after having their squad decimated following Erik Ten Hag’s move to Manchester United.
After that learning curve Tav, Greegsy, Davo and wee Scotty can be back in the big time next season although Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent are likely to be elsewhere next season.
NB: In 2013, grouped with Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax, Celtic picked up three points with a goal difference of 3-14.
Fact. Simply the worst.
No mate. The bottom line is that sevco is utter shite and believe they are better than they actually are because of the deluded fan boy pish they get from the compliant Scottish meedja.
sevco is truly the worst team EVER to play in the C.L. and hopefully they won’t be there again.
As for the Ibrox support, it is not intimidating at all, particularly when they are booing their own team which they invariably do on a regular basis.
A permanent embarrassment and an occasional disgrace.
If teams would try against in scotland theyd get the true state of theyre club,