Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

[rick derris]

just lost to kaunas of Lithuania, at a ground that would look a bit poor in the league of wales

a goal 2 mins from time, had been on the cards for a while. Hit the back of the net in a way that was beautiful

ally macoist was lacking his 'cheeky chappy question of sport' smile at the end

[David Agnew]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

Gutted.

[rick derris]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

wait! It's even better, they are out of europe altogether

[Ant van Oviedo]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

"They are out of Europe."

That's not fair, Rick, you edited that after seeing my very amusing reply.

[Guest]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

This is promising to be a great season.

[rick derris]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

have you heard haverfordwest beat swansea 3-2 tonight?

[Guest]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

That's a real shocker of a result -- absolutely extraordinary.

I'll refrain from having a sneer at AMMS because I was in this situation myself three years ago, and I know how appalling it feels.

But that's some sickener for them. They've spent £9 million on new players and now they have no income coming in from Europe at all. Plus, this result has just handed another £1.25 million to Celtic from the CL television income that would otherwise have been shared equally.

When this happened to Celtic in 2005, they had no other choice but to subsequently channel all their energies into the title race, and ended up winning the league comfortably. Rangers have to aim to do the same now -- comfortably or otherwise.

[ale]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

genuine question...how do you go from being UEFA finalists to losing to teams from Lithunia in just over two months?

[AMMS]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

I suppose I could begin by wondering why so many Welsh people give a fuck but I'll plough on for now until the Welsh club scores come in.

The most difficult part of this is that it's no surprise, we've been rotten in every pre-season game, the team/club is so utterly dependent on Barry Ferguson that when he isn't playing they look totally clueless. The signings have been puzzling, and the side being picked even more so. Too many players out of position, and clearly not in form. Kaunus, who are a poor side, deserved the win tonight so good luck to them.
I think maybe the football gods wanted some of the luck they gave us last season back. I imagine the more vocal element of our support may have something to say about this and the media will have a field day. I think Smith will survive but if we start the league badly he'll be under real pressure, which is bizarre when you consider last season, but our fans tend to have short memories.
Right I've shown my face here so I can go now retreat to a darkened room and avoid the sudden texts and calls I seem to be getting. I fuckin hate football sometimes.

[G-Man]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

Damn, if it wasn't for AMMS I'd gloat like a gloaty gloating thing, or whatever Ben Elton would have Blackadder say. But I like AMMS, so, erm... no, sorry, I can't be gracious. I better shut up now.

[blameless]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

I think a large part of the problem for Rangers is that the close season simply isn't long enough these days to give their knackered veterans time to recover after last season's marathon run-in.

Ferguson and Cuellar are injured, and Weir, McCulloch, Dailly and Papac are sleepwalking. If they're hiding any talented youngsters in the reserves, now might be a good time to give them a run.

[Just Say No To Vorderman]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

:-)

sighs of relief around europe at not having to entertain their hordes

can't gloat too much having travelled all the way to Bratislava a few years ago to see my team humped by Artmedia :-(..think we were four down when i left with a couple of german guys to get to the bars..maddest taxi ride ever with the driver showing off his stereo by playing the crazy frog tune at unbelievable volume :-)

[Guest]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

have you heard haverfordwest beat swansea 3-2 tonight?

Well, it wasn't really our first team. It was a mixture of youth team players and reserves. The first team are all wrapped in cotton wool for Saturday. Anyway Haverfordwest are shit hot.
Still..........Rangers eh?

[evilC]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

ale wrote:

genuine question...how do you go from being UEFA finalists to losing to teams from Lithunia in just over two months?

By not scoring (m)any goals? Genuine answer!

[G-Man]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

Ha ha, Vorderman, that is a funny story. What was worse: witnessing your team receive a torrid anal hammering by the schoolground wimp, or being subjected to high-volume looping Crazy Frogs?

[Jimmy Bignutz]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

According to the Guardian's report:

This result will have been as keenly celebrated at Parkhead as it was mourned at Ibrox.

Insightful.

[Hofzinser]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

I watched this in a bar with a Rangers-supporting mate, and after Thomson scored we both thought the tie was as good as finished. Although it had been coming all through the second half, with Rangers playing absolutely pitifully, we were still shocked when Kaunas finally scored the winner with 5 minutes to go. After last season's exploits, I thought getting a doing and just about holding on until the final whistle was how Rangers did Europe these days, and I fully expected them to do it again.

I kept the gloating to a minimum with my mate, and I'll do so again now.

Still, at least Europe will be spared the racist singing, desecration of momuments and general loutery that so many cities enjoyed last season.

[Jimmy Bignutz]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

There will indeed be none of that in Europe anymore.

[Hofzinser]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

Yes, that's exactly what I meant.

[Hofzinser]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

I post this without comment, except to say don't listen to it at work without headphones:

http://h1.ripway.com/kds/billy.wmv

[Just Say No To Vorderman]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

G.Man wants a hyphen wrote:

Ha ha, Vorderman, that is a funny story. What was worse: witnessing your team receive a torrid anal hammering by the schoolground wimp, or being subjected to high-volume looping Crazy Frogs?

to be honest i had a great time apart from the actual game..but how often is that the case... i only left with the St Pauli guys to avoid getting kept in the stadium after the game, which didn't happen in the end anyway :-)
flew to Brussels then to Vienna for a beer with my brothers Viennese pal and then a train to Bratislava..any trip involving trains is good for me.
I think the worst thing was the speed the taxi was driving at...all we could do in the back was laugh at our impending high speed noisy deaths..what a relief to stop :-)

It was probably an apt punishment for me as I was responsible for the crazy Frog t-shirts which contributed to the phenomena in the first place

[blameless]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

edit: to hof

"Nae fuckin midfield"? Odd, I could have sworn that Kevin Thomson scored their goal last night.

But yeah - there were similarities with the Artmedia game, when Celtic cost themselves millions in revenue by refusing to give Jackie McNamara a few thousand quid to stay.

I managed to maintain an entirely ungloaty feeling about this game, right up until I had a tea break with my Aberdeen-supporting colleague this morning and we both had a fit of the giggles.

[G-Man]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

It was probably an apt punishment for me as I was responsible for the crazy Frog t-shirts which contributed to the phenomena in the first place

KILL HIM!!!

[EIM]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

Can I turn this in to another dull Rangers and Celtic thread, by pointing out that Celtic fans aer just as abhorrent as the Rangers ones, but in a different way?

Cheers, ears.

[Guest]

Glasgow Rangers are out of the champions league

BBC Sport is saying that Rangers have missed out on £12 million as a result of this catastrophe. Dermot Desmond's Viennese croissants and freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice probably taste better than usual this morning.

Blameless, I'm not sure that metal fatigue was the main cause of this result. Papac might have the face of a 55-year-old, but he's actually only 28. Lee McCulloch is 30. These people shouldn't be ready for the knacker's yard just yet.

There were 67 days between the Scottish Cup final and the first leg of the Kaunas tie. It amounts to basically a ten-week rest. If professional footballers are still bolloxed after that amount of time off, then something else is wrong, either with them physically as individuals (though not the fact that they are a certain age) or with the severity of their training routines.

Artmedia did quite well in the 05/06 Champions League after knocking out Celtic, and it'll be interesting to see if Kaunas can now squeeze past Aalborg. It would be nice to have a Baltic team in the competition for the first time. Skonto Riga gave Barcelona and Chelsea a couple of mild scares in the late 1990s, but never managed to make it through.