First European final marked start of a golden age

Published on Sunday 11 May 2008 22:33

Belief soared as Rangers marched to Cup Winners' Cup final of 1961

IT WAS the start of what has been referred to as the golden age in Rangers' European history, when Scot Symon's young side began to reap the benefit of lessons learnt in previous years against teams such as AC Milan and Eintracht Frankfurt.

The latter club, then a force in German football, had defeated the Ibrox side 12-4 on aggregate in the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1960. It had proved a chastening experience for Rangers, and what they had to aspire to was again outlined in the final at Hampden Park, when Eintracht lost 7-3 to Real Madrid. The following season proved a watershed one for Rangers and, indeed, British football.

Hearts were league champions of Scotland in 1959/60 so Rangers were not able to return to the European Cup. But, on account of their victory in the Scottish Cup against Kilmarnock, the Ibrox team, with Jim Baxter now added to the side, were invited to contest the inaugural Cup Winners' Cup competition. The cast-list included other great names of the time, such as Dynamo Zagreb and Ferencvaros, and also a couple of sides – ASK Vorwaerts and Red Star Brno – whose names have since faded into obscurity. Present, too, were Wolverhampton Wanderers, then regarded as one of the finest teams in England and who, under legendary manager Stan Cullis, had won the league championship three times in the Fifties.

The series began with a preliminary round of two matches in order to reduce the entry to a manageable eight. Spain and France had refused to enter their eligible clubs but it was still a strong cast-list. Rangers were paired with the Hungarian side Ferencvaros, and at Ibrox in September 1960 managed to make up for two successive home defeats in Europe – Sparta Rotterdam as well as Eintracht Frankfurt had triumphed in Glasgow during the previous season – by winning 4-2. The return leg in Hungary, which was played at the national stadium rather than Ferencvaros' own ground, proved hairy for Rangers, and the Scots looked to have undone the good work of the first leg when they trailed 2-0. The away goal rule had not yet been introduced but no matter, for Davie Wilson scored on the hour mark to ward off the prospect of a toss of the coin being used to separate the teams.

After just one round Rangers were already into the quarter-finals, where they met Borussia Moenchengladbach. It was an opportunity to avenge their drubbing at the hands of another West German team, Eintracht Frankfurt, six months earlier. Indeed, they handed out a thrashing themselves, with the German leg held in Dusseldorf due to stadium concerns at Moenchengladbach. With the Eintracht Frankfurt squad sitting in the stand, Rangers, in a bruising encounter that was dubbed the Battle of the Rhine, won 3-0. The second-leg at Ibrox was a foregone conclusion, but Rangers still managed to raise eyebrows by winning 8-0, with Ralph Brand becoming the first Ibrox player to score a hat-trick in Europe.

The wishes of many were granted when Wolves were drawn with Rangers in the last four. "Wolves were one of the top clubs, and they came up to Glasgow thinking they would give us a hiding," recalled Harold Davis, the Ibrox wing-half who featured in every European match that season. "But they didn't do that."

The English reporters expected the English team to romp it, but 79,229 fans inside Ibrox saw Rangers win 2-0 in the first game. Four days before the second-leg, England defeated Scotland 9-3 at Wembley, something which made the outcome of the return match at Molineux even more satisfying. A 1-1 draw saw Rangers become the first British side to reach a major European final, and proved that the players were benefiting from this exposure to talents, and playing systems, from all across Europe.

"I played 28 European games and they were all against top teams," Davis told The Scotsman. "But we were still learning in those days. The continental type of play, even in those days, was recognised as being more ball-skill orientated rather than ploughing through the mud. It took us a long time to get over that and catch up with them.

In these days we were all Scots lads, and we had a lot to learn when it came to playing on the continent. It was the old gutsy, proud-to-be-a-Scot mentality, and we went out there and battled. And it was battling against more skilled players. In the end we were not that far short."

Not far short, but not quite good enough. Against Fiorentina in the final Rangers paid for a poor result in the first leg at Ibrox, where they fell to a Luigi Milan double and also had an Eric Caldow penalty saved. It was the first and only time that the Cup Winners' Cup would be decided over two legs although, in reality, the second match – which was played on a Saturday evening – was hardly necessary, with the Italian side, who had reached the final of the European Cup in 1957, unlikely to spurn a two-goal lead at home.

Fiorentina, then under the charge of the legendary former Hungarian international Nandor Hidegkuti, established a three-goal aggregate lead in the 12th minute, with Milan again the scorer. Although Rangers equalised through Alex Scott, Swedish winger Kurt Hamrin scored the winning goal on the night for the Italians. "We were a bit unlucky to lose over in Italy," recalled Davis. "We had as much of the game as they did, but we came out of it on the downside."

Bonfires were lit on the terraces to mark the achievement of an Italian club winning a European trophy for the first time, while Rangers, champions of Scotland again, prepared for another shot at the European Cup the following season, where more valuable experience was gathered in a march to the last-eight.

Read the orignal Scotsman match report from 1961 HERE:

http://sport.scotsman.com/uefacup/From-the-Scotsman-archives-Rangers.4014508.jp