Glasgow Rangers saw off the Bayern Munich of Franz Beckenbauer, Paul Breitner and Gerd Muller in front of 80,000 folk at Ibrox to make their way to the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final 50 years ago last month.
For half a century, it has stood alone as the stadium’s most significant game.
Not once did I think this game would have the capacity to equal it but how wrong I was.
A Europa League semi-final against another German outfit RB Leipzig was actually Rangers’ 60th game of a season that will now bring five more – three Scottish League matches plus two cup finals (the Scottish Cup and Europa League).
65 games will be an historic high. But only if they lift the trophy will there be a feeling higher than the one this victory provided.
Trailing 1-0 to a superb Angelino strike from the first leg, this was a superb turnaround.
Regardless of the result in Seville on May 18, though, reaching the Europa League Final is a better achievement for Giovani van Bronckhorst and his players than winning the Scottish title last season.
Amid a cauldron of noise, the depleted hosts completed their remarkable run from the play-offs to final and had turned the tie on its head within 25 minutes through goals from James Tavernier and Glen Kamara.
Tavernier has now scored seven goals in the Europa League, which is the outright most by a Rangers player in a single season in European club competition. Indeed, he’s also the third Englishman to score at least 10 goals in the Europa League with only Jermain Defoe and Harry Kane netting more (both 11).
Christopher Nkunku’s 32nd goal of the season levelled the tie again as he applied a smart first-time finish from Angelino’s delicious cross.
However, despite Leipzig cranking up the pressure against a team which has played 11 more games than them – more than 16 hours this season – Rangers had one moment of magic to add to their Europa League 2022 highlights.
And with 10 minutes left, the lively Ryan Kent beat his marker and delivered a cross which hung in the night air and was met by John Lundstram who drilled home to send Ibrox rocking from its foundations.
A night which began with a slightly subdued atmosphere and a minute’s silence due to the sudden death of Rangers’ kit man of more than three decades in Jimmy Bell, the game had ended just as Bell would want it.
Rangers will now meet another Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt after they also continued their own amazing journey in this season’s competition.
Just like Rangers, the passion of Frankfurt fans has been a calling card on their Europa League journey. They filled the stands at the Nou Camp when their team sensationally won against Barcelona in the quarter-finals – an estimated 30,000 supporters travelled to Spain for that game – and then crowded London when Eintracht beat the Hammers 2-1 in the semi-final first leg last week.
This time they were simply too strong for West Ham again. The stakes were high and both clubs knew what was up for grabs.
West Ham were aiming to reach their third European final after victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965 and also reaching the Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1976, while Frankfurt were bidding for their first Euro showpiece since winning the 1980 UEFA Cup.
The Hammers, who welcomed Alphonse Areola, Craig Dawson, Tomas Soucek, and Michail Antonio back into the starting line-up following Sunday’s 2-1 defeat by Arsenal, started brightly. But in truth, they were always unlikely to recover after seven devastating minutes.
Left-back Aaron Cresswell had already been sent off harshly in the first leg of their quarter-final with Lyon.
This time, though, he could have no complaints as he pulled down Jens Petter Hauge when he would have been clean through and was shown a red card.
Only 19 minutes were on the clock.
Six minutes later, the unmarked Rafael Borre hammered home Ansgar Knauff’s low ball and Frankfurt, who made six changes from their Bundesliga loss to Bayer Leverkusen on Monday, were 3-1 up on aggregate against 10 men.
It was a sad end to what has been a truly exciting campaign for West Ham and their frustration was clear when manager David Moyes booted the ball at a ball boy in the closing stages and was shown a straight red card.
An unsavoury end to a tie which had an unsavoury start last week when some German commentators were reportedly attacked by home fans after they took a lead inside 49 seconds.
In truth, the better team won over the two legs and Frankfurt are the tournament favourites with the SBOTOP Europa League 2022 betting odds.
Now we head for Seville.
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