[The Exiled Heretic]

After the humiliating 3:6 defeat at the weekend I have no doubt Bremen will be reeling and ready to make amends against Rangers. At home there is every possibility of that happening as they have the best home record in the Bundesliga this season and although they lost there to Olympiakos in the Champions League they also later beat Real Madrid there in the same competition. If there is one shining light they lost 5 goals in those two matches. The defeat was a strange one as they were winning with 17 minutes left and then collapsed losing 1:3 in the end. Against the Spanish Champions though and came back from an early goal to lead 3:1 and then hold out for 3:2. Their character has grown at home.

Bremen will no doubt go for the jugular early so unlike in Greece we will not get time to stabilise our defence- they must be ready from the off. Bremen have scored more than anyone else at home in the Bundesliga but interestingly they have also conceded quite a few too in comparison to the teams around about them- on average a goal a game against. That could be key if we are to be successful here. I feel they will score at least 2 goals but if we could get 1 goal then it may demoralise them.

It's going to be very tough. It's not imprortant for us to win nor even draw. Above all else I think we must score. I really can't see us holding out for a goalless draw or even a 0:1 defeat. The latter would be a nightmare if they scored early. Instead with them having to come at us I hope we can score before they do. A repeat of the game in Stuttgart would be great even though we lost that one.

 

[Swoosh]

6-0 Rangers easy

 

[Angle_eyes]

Bremen's target will be to be 1-0 up at half-time and that's obviously achievable. They'll have to up their game by 100% from the first leg as they didn't really trouble us at all. If it wasn't Rangers they were playing i'd have been disappointed in them based on their reputation.

We can, and should, qualify. There's a lot of confidence in the side just now. I very much doubt it'll be a straightforward night, however...

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

The thing with Bremen is that although they do have a great home record in the Bundesliga their goals against isn't that great. They've lost 14 at home in 12 games which still isn't too bad but not as good as most sides- even newly promoted Karlsruhe have conceded less. They do though have a fantastic scoring record at home having scored on average about 3 goals a game at home. They will go for the goals they know they have in them but I still feel we can get at least one of our own that will make things doubly hard for them.

More relevant though is their home form in Europe this season which is like this:

2:1 Dinamo Zagreb (CL Qualifier)
1:3 Olympiakos (CL Group)
2:1 Lazio (CL Group)
3:2 Real Madrid (CL Group)
3:0 Braga (CL Group)

A real mixed bag of results. They've scored in every game but also only managed to keep a clean sheet in one. That was against a very poor Braga side that I would regard as no more than average SPL quality. That's why I think we have to go for the goal or two that would see us through. It looks very unlikely that this will finish with less than 3 goals in it so I would rather at least 1 of them was scored by us.

Since coming back from the Winter shutdown their home form has been very impressive. They'ev been scoring freely and not conceding in all bar one game- 1:2 defeat by Bochum. Like the Olympiakos game that was one they were leading for a long spell and lost- though Naldo was sent off at 1:1. That would make me think they have a problem with their nerves.

And their nerves must be ready for twanging at the moment. Were the shoe on the other foot I would not be too confident if Rangers had lost 2:0 going on 3:0 or 4:0 over there then lost 6:3 to Celtic at the weekend. They will have a big mental block to get over and I'm not that sure they will cope with that- let's hope not anyway.

 

[The Judge]

Your "Jeckyl and Hyde" performances against Lyon have left me unable to guess what will happen. One thing's for sure you'll probably experience a squeaky-bum at some stage.

 

[Angle_eyes]

The games against Lyon weren't exactly Jekyll and Hyde. The scorelines were, but we lost the two late goals at Ibrox because we were chasing the goal we needed to qualify. We were as well losing 3-0 as 1-0 as far as i'm concerned. Hopefully we won't be in that situation where we need a goal to go through tomorrow. Scoring the first would certainly ease the nerves, but I can't see us getting it. We'll need to defend as a whole team tomorrow, so McCulloch up front is probably a good thing from that point of view.

Other than that enforced change I can see Smith going with the same side as the first leg. Smith always seems to have a surprise though.

 

[filo]

My tip is injure Diego and you will win 0-7

Jus kidding, I think this match will end up Bremen 1 Rangers 3.

 

[Angle_eyes]

You're more optimistic than any Rangers fan I know!

Hope you're right :thumbsup: Here's to a Rangers v Bayern final

 

[filo]

Hell yeah!!! Bayern vs Rangers FINALE!!!

By the way if any of you know the sopcast channel of the game, I'd me most thankfull if you can tell me.

 

[maradona10]

filo, check your PMs I've posted the link for you.

 

[filo]

Thank u Maradona now I understand why people in Argentina consider you God Hehehehe

 

[Angle_eyes]

What a horrible half of football that was. It's a miracle Werder aren't two or three up by now. We can't even make simple passes and are defending far too deep. In the first leg we didn't let Diego get a kick (he's a diving wee shite btw) but we're giving him far too much space. There's no way this match can stay 0-0. McGregor's been our motm so far.

 

[Angle_eyes]

1-0 Bremen. Diego capitalising on a poor Broadfoot header. Then Broadfoot tries to get a penalty with a disgusting dive :yuck: Cut that shit out or **** off back to St. Mirren. The writing's on the wall imo.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Broadfoot's a fud. Three times he's gone down trying to get free-kicks that never were instead of trying to play the ball. It's ridiculous that Weise was their weak-link in the 1st leg and yet we've only had one shot at goal.

 

[Angle_eyes]

McCulloch on for Novo. I know Novo didn't get a lot of service but he had a poor game when he did get the ball. 14 corners for Bremen now...

 

[Angle_eyes]

How the hell did that not go in??? Scary stuff. What a save McGregor.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Thank **** for that :relieved:

We were under the cosh for the whole match but somehow we've survived.

McGregor :star:
Cuellar :star:

Hemdani and Papac were also good :thumbsup:

Looking forward to the quarter-final draw now :shades:

 

[Teddy Bear]

that was a bit jammy arty:

I'm usually a critic of McGregor but performances like that will lead to me stop calling him Flapper. Perhaps 'll give him a promotion to Shagger

Cuellar was immense too :star:


Ferguson was pretty poor , worst i can remember him in a European game

 

[Swoosh]

We took a battering and still came out at the other end winners. Years gone by we would have crumbled under that pressure and been licking our wounds think what if.

We don't need to with Walter and the current bunch. It might not be pretty but we're ****ing going places!

WATP

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

I agree with all that's been written too. We were very lucky and it's the longest 90 minutes I've sat through in a while. Great goal by Diego. Even though we didn't see it at Ibrox it's a shame the tournament isn't going to see his genious after tonight.

It's obvious again tonight that we can only play that system with Cousin. We might get away with it playing Darcheville but even then I doubt it. Dado would have been perfect but with the other personnel we've got it doesn't work.

Shagger was very good tonight.

The Captain was rank rotten.

When you are doing the business, and at 0:0 we were, but have to make a change it's best to go like for like. Walter done that exactly. He removed one useless twat with another- though Whittaker has the excuse that it was his first European game.

Carlos- Excellent.

Papac- very solid and didn't look out of place despite getting no cover.

Man of the match for me though in Rangers colours was Davis. I thought he was superb tonight and if something was going to happen it was going to happen through him. Every time I see him he's looking more and more the part. If MonoBroon is worth £4.5m I'd take Davis for 2/3rds of that now.

Broadfoot- I actually thought had a decent game and got forward well but no exuse for throwing yourself about like a blouse. Absoloutely cringe worthy and he should have a look at himself.