The BBC have shocked the world by praising Rangers’ triumph yesterday evening as ‘a fine win’ among their match report which even managed to be honest and admit Rangers were much the better side on the night and managed their strong opposition well.
Rangers of course won a deserved passage through to the group stage of the Europa League, but the Beeb, so reluctant to say anything positive about anything Rangers, changed tact for this occasion and described Rangers’ win as ‘fine’ and the following:
“On paper, this was a tough game for Rangers. Galatasaray, despite finishing sixth in their domestic league last season, have a strong squad with plenty of recognisable names. On the pitch, though, Rangers were the ones with the star players. Their defence were untroubled for the most part, their midfield won the battle, and Kent, Hagi and Morelos all looked dangerous every time they got the ball. What looked like a tricky encounter was, in truth, relatively easy and Rangers only had themselves to blame that the game was not already over by the time Marcao scored.”
Furthermore, the closest they could get to being negative was a backhanded compliment that we only had ourselves to blame for not putting the match out of sight long before the consolation goal.
It marks a change of approach by Pacific Quay, praising Rangers for the first time that we can remember in a long long time, and perhaps is an attempt on their part of an olive branch towards Ibrox.
Of course, it’s sort of a Trojan bearing a gift as well – they have every reason to get in our good books these days given the meteoric rise of our European stock, and media groups want to be part of that.
So it’s not like we wholeheartedly trust their intentions.
But it’s still ironic to see them praise us…