Light Blues’ focus firmly on Europe
THE Big Two had pretty important matches this midweek, Celtic chasing the Premiership title and Rangers preparing for a big night in Seville.
At Ibrox, the Light Blues comfortably took full points against Ross County. At Tannadice that evening, Celtic gained the point that gave them the league title.
It has been a considerable achievement for Ange Posteglou to come into this country, take over a team he’d have known little about and guide them to the title – and the League Cup – at his first attempt.
Full credit to the Australian manager, who not only oversaw the arrival of players from all corners of world football but also integrated them into a system that seemed to suit everyone.
Rangers have a league match against Hearts today – a preview of the Scottish Cup Final next week – but they would be a strange club if the thoughts of the manager, directors and players were not focusing on the Europa League Final against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Scottish clubs seldom reach that level of competition and it is to the credit of Gio van Bronckhorst, his back-room staff and his playing squad, that Rangers represent Scotland on Wednesday. My
The player who caught my eye was Real’s Gento – and seven years later he was my opponent
own memories of the German side go back quite a few years.
In the spring of 1960, I was at right-back in the Scottish Schools Under-18 side to face England at Turf Moor, Burnley. We lost – but were boosted when the authorities gave us all tickets in the schoolboys’ enclosure at Hampden for May 18, when Eintracht, who eliminated Rangers in the semis, faced Real Madrid in the European Cup Final.
There was a crowd of 127,621. The West Germans were good, scoring three goals. But Real Madrid were superb, knocking in seven – three by Alfredo Di Stefano and four by Ferenc Puskas – to win 7-3, still the highest-scoring final in the competition.
But the player who caught my eye was Real’s outside-left Francisco Gento, quite a small guy but one whose pace and drive completely overran the right side of the Frankfurt defence.
Almost unbelievably, seven years later, that same player was my immediate opponent when Celtic met Real in the Bernabeu for Di Stefano’s testimonial.
There were around 120,000 in the ground that night and I had my hands full with Senor Gento. He might have been 34 by that time but he could still run quite quickly. I am pleased to say I held my own against him and we won 1-0.