McGREGOR CHANNELS BRILLIANCE OF BANKS
LUKAS MASOPUST wore the look of a child who’d just been shown a conjuring trick. Almost 13 years after singlehandedly denying Werder Bremen as Rangers advanced towards the UEFA Cup final in Manchester, Allan McGregor’s capacity for producing moments of goalkeeping sorcery remains undiminished.
Where the 39-year-old’s save so late in the day in Prague ranks in his all-time list is a purely subjective argument.
What’s beyond all dispute is that there would have been no blame attributed to him had he remained statuesque as the Czech’s header bulleted towards goal.
To get a fingertip to the ball would have been a considerable achievement. To wrap his left arm around it and gather it into his jersey was verging on the supernatural.
What a difference that moment made to the entire feel of the night. So poorly had Rangers started the game that it would have been hard to dress up a narrow loss as a hard luck story.
But a score draw, thanks largely to a late moment of sheer inspiration, puts a rather different complexion on things.
Steven Gerrard’s men may only be slight favourites to progress now but they are favourites all the same.
‘I saw it a bit late,’ McGregor reflected. ‘It’s just one of these things. You react to it, you stick your hand out and hopefully it doesn’t go in. And it never did — so, happy days.’
It’s so often the case that those responsible for such sublime moments are unable to fully articulate their significance. Sitting in a London TV studio, Ally McCoist, had no such difficulty.
Effusive in his praise of what he’d just witnessed, he said: ‘I don’t want to get ahead of myself but what a save. Ridiculous.
‘To get to it is one thing, to hold on to it is another thing entirely. The header was remarkable, the save even better.
‘The ball is actually behind him, it’s a phenomenal save. It is as good a save as I have seen in years. It gets better every time you see it. The way he did was just astonishing.
‘It’s gone from one of the best saves this season to one of the best saves ever. I’m thinking of (Gordon) Banks, obviously, but that is up there.’
One day short of a year since Rangers last played in front of supporters, the largely empty stands around the Sinobo Stadium in Prague provided a bleak reminder of the painfully slow progress made in the fight against Covid-19.
From a footballing perspective, this match was always going to shine a light on the improvement in the Ibrox side since their hopes of progressing to the last eight of the Europa League were all but ended that night by Bayer Leverkusen.
That Gerrard’s side will approach next week’s return leg with no little optimism of making the quarter-finals is, in itself, a measure of another forward step being taken.
That they should return to Glasgow with a share of the spoils from a display that was a long way from perfect is also indicative of the side’s evolution.
There’s a lot to be said for chiselling out results in such circumstances.
For all Rangers started sluggishly, Slavia’s opener was simply wondrous. Using Connor Goldson as a shield, Nicolae Stanciu rendered McGregor a spectator to his missile.
Wherever Gerrard looked in the opening 35 minutes, men in blue jerseys made elementary errors.
Looking a yard off the pace, they mis-hit routine passes and tackled meekly.
As poor as they were, their trump card throughout this season has been an ability to pull something out of the fire.
Ianis Hagi had looked as if his boots were on the wrong feet until he sensibly played a percentage ball across goal following Slavia’s failure to deal with a free-kick. Filip Helander couldn’t miss. For a 42nd successive game, Gerrard’s men had their goal.
It proved to be the catalyst for a much improved second-half display.
In an engaging contest, Rangers became as much of a threat as their impressive opponents. Ryan Kent was denied by a superb acrobatic save and Goldson by his timidness as he tried to head home a cross.
McGregor’s remarkable late intervention ensured neither man endured a sleepless night, though.
Given their display at Leicester in the last round, only a fool would believe that Slavia’s best chance has gone.
But, equally, the Czechs will spend the next week wondering why a man who’ll turn 40 in January still manages to keep goal like someone half his age.
‘Time will tell if we are happy with the result,’ added McGregor.
‘But after the start of the game I thought we did well to come back into it. We created some good chances, obviously got a good goal and played better all round.
‘I don’t think they changed a lot throughout the game. We knew what they were going to do, we knew what they were all about.
‘We just didn’t handle it very well for the first 15 or 20 minutes. But we did after that.
‘At half-time we just said the result was okay but the performance wasn’t great. So if we upped our performance levels we could win the game or create more chances.’
And if Rangers up their performance levels from the get go next week, a place in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2008 surely beckons?
‘That’s always your aim,’ added McGregor. ‘We have the belief but we are up against a good side, so it will be difficult.
‘We want to do it, obviously. You go into every game, especially at this club, wanting to win it and every competition.’