Rangers’ achievement last night continues the club’s staggering, incomprehensible brilliance in the Europa League.
Our opponents were a genuine favourite to win this competition, and once again the Famous pulled off a goliath night and became the first Scottish side to ever win in Sevilla, against every odd possible, as called by Ibrox Noise’s Derek.
It simply defies belief that no matter who our manager is, this club absolutely has the measure of this competition – under Stevie, Gio, even ‘him’, and now Clement, we just keep breaking the odds, shattering belief and achieving the literally impossible.
To go to Spain, needing to win, with a team that included Ben Davies, Cifu, Borna Barisic, Sam Lammers and the now-adored-but-previously-hated Cyriel Dessers, and managing to pull it off, was absolutely stunning.
True, some of the performances on the night were not great – Ibrox Noise had to take offline our ratings post (which will remain the case for the foreseeable) in the face of swathes of abuse from some fans who couldn’t accept James Tavernier did not have a great night, and that Sima wasn’t a lot better aside that brilliant goal – but that doesn’t matter.
The individual performances were not that important – the team ethic was, and the grit the XI and the subs put in, especially in the second half, carried us over, and Roofe was right place right time to seal a staggering win.
That we are now in the last 16, that we have evaded the Champions League drop-outs (which ironically are some of the weakest we’ve ever seen) and that we won the group with a titanic win at a team who haven’t lost at home all season speaks a lot of the impact of Philippe Clement.
As we have repeatedly said, football is about results, and Clement is getting them.
Just like Gio two seasons ago, his start, aside Aberdeen, has been pretty staggering, and to be in the last 16, just like GVB, we have Europa League after Xmas.
So we’ve been here before – but what Clement has to work with is a lot less than what Gio had that season.
But would you ever bet against Rangers in the Europa League.
Dare we dream of Dublin?