No denying that after 30 minutes of Rangers v Standard Liege, most fans probably considered it ‘one of those nights’.
Liege had come hungrily out of the traps, flying, pressing, attacking, and Rangers looked lethargic, slow, weak and were second to everything.
Liege well deserved their lead.
And yet, from Scott Arfield’s winning goal onwards, this was in fact a day which only reaffirmed the seismic shift that has happened in Scottish football
Celtic, strolling to a shock 0-2 lead in Milan, suddenly crumbled and lost wildly 4-2.
Rangers, struggling v Liege, but found a way Walter Smith would have been proud of, a way to grind their way through a bad performance and still, somehow, emerge victorious.
A victory that was barely deserved – but which was certainly earned.
Rangers never gave in, and winning that one tonight after such a slow start, would have absolutely broken Celtic’s hearts, not just Liege’s.
This was the pure grit of what Steven Gerrard has built – tactically Liege were very much the better side till Arfield’s goal, but for the remainder of the game, Rangers dominated, and earned their place in the last 32.
This Steven Gerrard era is a remarkable one – even when the chips are down and our opponent plays better on the night than us, we still found a way to win, and to earn that win.
We didn’t deserve the win, but we fought for it, and we take our place in the last 32 by right.
We’ll have more on this over the next day or so, but for now, WATP.