Last hurdleTo reach the main tournament of the Champions League, PSV only has to deal with Rangers FC. Led by Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the Scots turned a 0-2 deficit from the first game at their own Ibrox and got rid of the Belgian stunt team Union Sint-Gillis 3-0.
With Rangers, Van Bronckhorst played beautiful Champions League matches against Bayern Munich, Valencia, AS Monaco and PSV around the turn of the century. And he would like nothing more than to revive those times with his most favorite club after Feyenoord at Ibrox.
We already got a glimpse of what Rangers is capable of today when the Scots reached the final of the Europa League. Eintracht Frankfurt proved too strong in this. Tonight they dominated in front of their home crowd against Union. James Tavernier scored the first Scottish goal on the stroke of half-time and after the break it was hit twice via Antonio Colak and Malik Tillman.
Champions League football is a sound from a very distant past in the blue part of Glasgow. The club was last active on the highest club stage in Europe in 2010. It then finished third in a group with Manchester United, Valencia and Bursaspor. Then the Ice Age set in at Rangers. The acclaimed club slipped, went bankrupt, was reinstated and resurrected. In 2021, the title was taken again for the first time in ten years. Van Bronckhorst has further expanded that success of trainer Steven Gerrard.
Last season’s European success cost Rangers two basic players anyway. Calvin Bassey was sold to Ajax for 23 million euros and Joe Aribo went to the Premier League (Southampton). The club has already bought a lot. Van Bronckhorst and his assistants Dave Vos and Roy Makaay now have to make do with, for example, Ben Davies who came over from Liverpool and the Turkish promise Ridvan Yilmaz, taken over from Besiktas. PSV should be wary of the Colombian hothead Alfredo Morelos in the coming diptych, who missed the end of last season’s successful Europa League campaign due to an upper leg injury, but is now fit again. Right back Tavernier has also remained loyal to the club, as has winger Ryan Kent.
With two wins in the first two games, the club have started the Scottish league in style, which has become another time-honored battle between them and Celtic since the return of Rangers. But perhaps even more than dealing with Celtic, Rangers want to play Champions League football again at Ibrox.
Watch our most popular sports videos
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
#PSV #hungry #Rangers #revive #times #Giovanni #van #Bronckhorst