in our opening home game, so before settling in front of the telly I
put on my Rangers shirt and since I'm living in Dublin made sure the
curtains were drawn! Just like the Porto manager I was surprised to
see the starting line up include Jeffers and Bernard one having made a
substitution appearance the other making his debut as well as
Lovenkrands who seems to be in and out of fashion more times than bell
bottoms.
It didn't take long to realise that this Porto team could pass the ball
about and the ease of which they created goal scoring chances grew more
and more frustrating as it only seemed a matter of time before they
would score and then up popped Lovenkrands to score the most unexpected
of goals and send me Klinsman style across my wooden floor to join the
players in celebration.
Second half starts and even before the corner was taken I was thinking
it would just be like Rangers to lose a goal here and seconds later I
was proved right but at least now everyone can stop the inquest about
the defence for the first goal as I clearly jinxed the team and promise
never to have another negative thought during a Rangers game again.
Perhaps if we all started thinking 'it would just be like Rangers to
score five goals in the next five minutes' at the start of every game.
So the game resumes it's usual pattern of Porto pressing and Rangers
looking shaky until Rangers score a fortuitous second goal, I didn't
even celebrate as I was sure the referee was going to blow for a free
but after five minutes of play I accepted the goal had stood and began
chants of 'Easy Easy Easy'.
Of course back come Porto with another corner and another dreadful goal
to concede, seeing Pepe do the worlds worst goal celebration for the
second time in the night rubbing salt into the wounds. Really
frustrating how many times a Porto player had the ball in a dangerous
position with acres of time and space especially when we seem to have
more defenders than anything else at the club.
At this stage I was beginning to accept an opening day draw which I
knew wouldn't be much good to us but was probably more than we deserved
when out of nowhere Kyrgiakos pops up and the ball sails heavenly into
the back of the net and its screams of YES YES YES! and my cover with
the neighbours is blown.
Into the final five minutes and my team seem determined to bring on a
heart attack by trying to pick out 60 yard passes to our forwards
instead of passing the ball about defence and midfield but we survive
and 3 points are ours and the history books will only record a Rangers
win.
Now bring on Inter Milan but perhaps instead of issuing fans with
coloured card a couple of Valium would be more suitable.
DublinBlue