Almost 70 years have passed since Rangers played their first-ever UEFA match, on 14th October 1956, at home to Nice in the second ever European Cup.
Rangers won 2-1 in the first leg, before being defeated by the same score in the second setting up a third match playoff, which the French side would win 3-1.
That night marked the beginning of a rich, sometimes painful, European history for the Gers, a history that now casts a long shadow over Russell Martin’s side.
Trailing 3–1 from the first leg at Ibrox against Club Brugge, Rangers face a challenge no team in their history has ever accomplished: overturning a first-leg home defeat in Europe.
The record is unforgiving. In 1961, Rangers hosted Fiorentina in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final first leg and suffered a 2–0 defeat.
They managed a to score in Florence but were defeated 2-1, losing their first European final 4–1 on aggregate, setting an early precedent that still resonates today.
Just two- and a-bit years later, in 1963, Rangers faced Real Madrid in the European Cup. A 1–0 loss at Ibrox was compounded by a crushing 6–0 defeat in Madrid, leaving them 7–0 down on aggregate, a reminder that even the most glamourous European nights could turn to disaster.
Fast forward to 1972, in the unofficial UEFA Super Cup against Ajax. Rangers lost 3–1 at home and, despite a closer 3–2 defeat in Amsterdam, were eliminated 6–3 on aggregate.
More recently, in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, Bayer Leverkusen visited Ibrox and beat Rangers 3–1. A 1–0 defeat in Germany, after a long gap due to the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown of football, meant a 4–1 aggregate exit, another modern example of the difficulty of overturning a home first-leg loss.
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Even Rangers’ most decorated managers, Walter Smith, Graeme Souness, and recently Steven Gerrard, have been unable to defy this record. Now, in only his first months at the helm, already under intense pressure and scrutiny from the Ibrox crowd, Martin faces the same historical weight.
Domestically, Rangers have already stumbled, drawing their first three league games and leaving them six points behind Celtic by mid-August.
The pressure is intense, and the collapse against Brugge, conceding three goals in the opening 20 minutes at Ibrox before a second half Danilo consolation, has only amplified the stakes.
Brugge, disciplined and experienced at this level, will not make mistakes easily. Rangers must combine tactical precision, attacking urgency, and mental resilience to even have a chance of rewriting history.
Almost 70 years after their first European game, this is a defining moment: a chance to finally break a record that has stood unchallenged since 1956.
Success would see Rangers etch a new chapter in their continental story. Failure would only reinforce a long and painful tradition of home first-leg defeats.
History is against them, form is against them, and logic is against them. Martin’s men need a miracle, but stranger things have happened.