Always harsh criticising players missing penalties but I'd be so disappointed in Tadic. Such an experienced player, step up first and take a decent penalty and set the tone for the rest of the shootout. Good night for Rangers.
Bodo are no slouches either, they've been improving year on year and their home form is pretty decent.
Happy for Rangers considering the history between us and them. I can’t help but feel gutted for Mourinho though.
He was absolutely horrendous on penalties for us, think he faced 40 odd and only saved one in his time at Stoke . He used to just stay rooted to the spot or limply flop one way. Clearly he's been practicing since he left.
I was worried when we signed him from you as he'd made so many howlers and looked spent despite still being a decent age. Our GK coach (Dean Kiely) helped him turn his career around, in fact I think he's significantly improved every 'keeper we've had since he's been here. Butland seems like a genuinely nice bloke whose confidence was shot after maybe peaking too early in his career. So glad he's playing at such a high level again (in Europe anyway).
@Vito Andolini will be pleased with Rangers' progression and the coefficient boost it will give the SPL
I'll explain what I'm pleased with. The Rangers have now found a new hope that is going to be followed by a takeover in the summer. The pleasing thing? We've heard it all before. The delusion is fantastic, some of my friends actually think that The Rangers have paid their debt to HMRC. I've spent 11 of the last 12 seasons watch my team wipe the floor with them and we get another chance this weekend with a few of their fans back in to see it, I can't wait. Unfortunately on here all of The Rangers fans have gone missing. Are you one?
Seems that was their target anyway. What else to think when a team comes to Frankfurt with a 1-2 loss in the 1st leg and the coach changes the team in 10(!!) positions. Yes, Henderson was banned for the match and Brobbey injured but to fill out the team with mostly 18/19 year olds with little to no experience at all is a clear indicator that they have written off the match right before the kick off (the Ajax coach was asked in the press conference later why he sent only a B-team in this important match and, of course, he denied it, but it was obvious that they didn't pay much attention anymore to this match and concentrate more on winning the Dutch Championship where they have a comfortable lead (I heard)) This was by far the weakest Ajax team I've ever witnessed. Frankfurt could've hammered them double the score if they weren't so wasteful with their chances ( Mario Götze, though, with a beauty for his first (2-0) and a 40 metre flick over the goalie who was out there (4-1) ) btw: That Ajax couldn't be arsed was also seen when the camera showed the bench for a short time and we saw Henderson and another Ajax player laughing there. I mean, your team is 1-4 behind and the players are joking on the bench? Anyway, Eintracht Frankfurt had no effort to win this one. Now they're getting Spurs, which will be way harder for them. I see this as a 50-50 match.
It was a shame what happened to him at Stoke. The first couple of seasons he was in the team from 2014-2016 he was absolutely outstanding. Culminating in his career high point in March 2016 when he was named as the England keeper in the pre-Euro.2016 prestige friendly against Germany. He was in a tight battle with Pickford to be the England keeper that year and it looked like he was just edging ahead by getting picked in the biggest pre-tournament game. Unfortunately he sustained a freak serious foot injury that game which kept him out for 18 months and he didn't return until autumn 2017. By that time Pickford had cemented himself as England number one and Stoke had declined from being a top half team to a struggling one in his absence. For whatever reason, he never came close to regaining his old form after his return and was shaky throughout our relegation season with some really costly mistakes in our relegation run in that possibly might have even saved us had they not happened. We didn't go down by a huge amount and those dropped points might have been the difference. After relegation we made the big statement (and hugely costly mistake) in keeping him and turning down big money offers from other clubs. At the time it looked like a statement of ambition and a sign of Butland's good character. He could have kicked up a fuss to get a move back to the Premier League but was prepared to knuckle down and help us back up and it was a statement of intent from the club by continuing to pay his high wages. Unfortunately his shaky form in the relegation season wasn't a one off and actually got even worse in The Championship with a catalogue of disastrous mistakes. Obviously the big money interest in him disappeared, we were lumbered with his massive wages for an underperforming player who was now effectively worthless and we've never recovered since. He even got dropped in the end and had to play second fiddle to journeymen Championship keepers like Adam Federici and Andrew Davies until he was finally put out of his misery with the move to Palace. Only Jack Butland will know what really happened to him. There have been loads of theories about mental blocks and possible lingering effects of his injury that were continuing to affect his performance. Personally I think it was the crushing disappointment of having his career cruelly curtailed just as he was at the cusp of reaching the elite level. When he got injured he was at the peak of his powers, looked primed to be England's number 1 in that Euros that summer and he'd have almost certainly earned a big move to a top club that summer. That all got ripped away from him and when he returned Stoke were now struggling and he struggled to get back into the swing of it and regain his form. I think the desperation to get back to his previous level, combined with internal bitterness and frustration with what got taken away from him combined to create a mental performance block and muddled mind that he's taken years to get over.
I know there was a bit of fuss about the seeding in the Champions League but 8 of the top 9 from the league phase of this competition are now in the quarter finals. 7th placed Olympiakos are the only ones from the top eight to miss out and they were knocked out by 9th placed Bodo/Glimt. There are some names that perhaps underperformed but the teams that have been the most consistent are those in contention to win it.
To be fair, after what he did to us in his final years and the huge salary he took from us for such awful performances. I'd say banishment to Scotland is a fair punishment.
Rangers fans in trouble and having read what the banned said not surprised. Uefa charges Rangers over 'shameful' anti-woke banner
Funny they get their panties in a twist over a few words, but do nothing about objects being thrown or pyro.
if referring to the old infirm from the one donkey race north of the border I always find it bemusing the talk comes around about them joining the Premier League why the f would we want them?!?!? to bolster their coffers? not sure it would be wise anyway, if they don't become big in a big pond they may just become another Tottering Hamsters and of course why should they just walk into another league, just wrong on every count (Welsh clubs get away with it as they joined the English football structure yonks ago, not just as a route to greater things)
