The fear factor of Ibrox on European nights: ‘All of it just joins to make this white noise’

“Ibrox, baby! It’s just different!” said Ianis Hagi, the euphoria bursting from every syllable, after inspiring Rangers to a memorable comeback against Braga in the last 32 of the Europa League two years ago. He had scored twice as they fought from 2-0 down on the night to win the first-leg match 3-2.

It was the first knockout game the stadium had hosted since 2011 after a decade of laying dormant while the club clambered off the floor and up through the Scottish divisions, but that night in February 2020 rekindled a spirit that has stayed with this team since.

When hope had seemingly vanished as the Portuguese side came a post’s width away from making it three with 30 minutes left that night, Hagi conjured a piece of magic to pull one back and restore the faintest of belief. On his way back to the halfway line, he urged the crowd to raise the volume and suddenly there was a wave of pressure that seemed irresistible.

Joe Aribo then danced his way through six men to equalise. Braga then stood still, astounded, as Hagi raced towards the Copland Road Stand celebrating his free kick that had made it 3-2.

They had turned the game on its head, and Hagi’s father, Romanian footballing royalty Gheorghe, was in tears as he watched his son live in Glasgow for the first time.

Ibrox has seen many famous nights in its 123 years but the semi-final second leg against RB Leipzig tonight (Thursday) will enter the top tier of those occasions if Rangers can overturn a 1-0 deficit from last week’s opener in Germany to seal a place in the Europa League final.

They stand 90 minutes away from completing the road to that final in Seville on May 18, which most thought had disappeared over the horizon for at least a generation or two after the unlikely journey to Manchester in 2008, for the same showpiece in the competition’s old guise as the UEFA Cup, ended in defeat by Zenit Saint Petersburg.

To get here, they have discarded tournament favourites Borussia Dortmund, edged out Red Star Belgrade and repeated the trick of coming from behind to beat Braga. And with each round, Rangers great turned commentator Ally McCoist has deemed it the loudest he has heard the “old lady” in years.

There is a general acceptance that Leipzig are the most talented team Rangers have faced in these last four years of Europa League adventures. But this mesmerizing run under new manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has not only imbued players and fans with a belief that they can take the game to top-level teams, but it has also brought back the idea of Ibrox having a fear factor.

It has helped them take the lead in the opening quarter of all three knockout matches at home.

In the quarter-final against Braga, who before the match swore they had learned not to be overawed by the atmosphere, Rangers had the ball in the net twice within four minutes.

The idea will be the same against Leipzig: to harness the noise, to intimidate the opposition and to try to prove that the intangible of home advantage can truly have a material effect.

These momentous occasions lend themselves to romantic notions but a fiercely loyal and passionate fanbase has the chance to help complete the journey from the bottom tier of Scottish league football to a European final within 10 years.

Inspiration is not in short supply, either.

The fans have these matches ingrained in their mind forever and, so too, it seems, do their opponents…

Rangers 2-0 Dynamo Kyiv, European Cup first round, September 1987

“I watched this game back only a couple of days ago,” says Sergei Baltacha, who captained that Kyiv side 35 years ago.

For a defender who won the European Cup Winners’ Cup, four Soviet titles, four Soviet Cups, appeared in a European Championship final and has an Olympic gold medal, that statement begs the question: why?

“It’s simple. I still didn’t know what happened at the first goal. All I felt was a touch and a massive noise. Next thing I knew, Rangers had scored,” he says.

It’s true. Baltacha is referring to the 24th minute at Ibrox, when a cacophony of noise appeared to hijack the mind of the visitors’ goalkeeper Viktor Chanov.

“We were travelling on the coach with the under-16s team, and a coach asked me about playing Rangers,” says Baltacha, who is now a youth coach at Charlton Athletic in the English third tier. “So I asked him if he could show me the first goal, as I had never seen it.

“At the time I was just surprised. I felt someone touch my back and thought they must have pushed me but then I turned around and Ally (McCoist) was passing to Mark Falco, who had an empty net. I couldn’t understand as it seemed like slow motion with the noise. I could only think, ‘What has happened here? Oh my god’.”

Baltacha’s Kyiv had won the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in May 1986, and no fewer than 12 of their players were in the 22-man USSR squad at the World Cup in Mexico that summer. In forwards Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov, they had two Ballon d’Or winners. Such was the scarcity of visits from Soviet bloc countries to British shores during communist rule, the allure of the fixture was even stronger.

After a 1-0 defeat in the first leg two weeks earlier, Ibrox rose to the occasion on what is typically described by older generations as the loudest they have heard those terraces.

They were handed a boost when Belanov was forced off early through injury but they did not bank on what had come two minutes beforehand.

“I spoke to Viktor afterwards and he said it was a mistake. He tried to pull out of the throw,” says Baltacha. “He tried to throw it early to the free player but the Rangers players started to close him down so he changed his mind. That’s when it hit my back.”

Baltacha admits that, even for a team used to playing in front of 100,000 fanatics in their home games at the old Republican Stadium and at some of the biggest venues in world football, it took them time to find their feet in Glasgow that night.

“You could feel the pressure all the time from the stands. We were experienced players but it took us a while to get used to the noise and aggression, and the first goal affected us,” he says.

“It was a very difficult game, as it was really intense and really aggressive. The team are just like the supporters on the pitch in that way but if someone tries to be aggressive against us, we respond. It is like the mentality of Scottish football too.”

That could be seen in the final period as Dynamo pushed for an equaliser and began to show their quality as space opened up — but only after McCoist had made it 2-0 six minutes into the second half.

“I met Ally when he played in my testimonial at St Johnstone and he said, ‘Do you remember that game and what happened?’. He said, ‘The first goal?’, and elbowed me, laughing. I kicked him!”

The noise was reverberating around Ibrox but tension had started to creep in late on.

As such, Rangers’ player-manager Graeme Souness, resorted to what would now be seen as unorthodox tactics or, more bluntly, anti-football.

“He had space on the ball at the halfway line but instead of going forward he turned and kicked the ball all the way back to his goalkeeper so he could pick it up,” says Baltacha. “In those days, pass-backs were allowed so it was a professional tactic when in the lead.

“After he did it once, we were getting ready to chase it down but the crowd cheered it like a goal when it reached the goalkeeper.”

Indeed, those are the exact words of commentator Archie MacPherson as he chuckles at the temerity of Souness.

Rangers 2-1 Leeds United, Champions League play-off, October 1992

Some games don’t require an introduction. The champions of Scotland hosting the champions of England is one of those.

This was the first season of the Premier League that has come to be dominated by the continent’s megaclubs but at this point, Rangers and Leeds were two heavyweights throwing money at a European dream. British bragging rights were at stake too and so was a place in the group stage of the Champions League, a new concept in which the winners of two groups of four faced each other for the European crown.

There were no away fans at Ibrox for this first leg but the idea the fixture could prove decisive was played down by Leeds boss Howard Wilkinson. He said that the crowd can’t tackle and the crowd can’t kick the ball. Less than a minute in, he looked like he may be proven right.

“The game kicked off and the place erupted. But then suddenly it was almost like a film where the director had shouted cut,” says Wilkinson. “The thing about that night is that we saw both sides of the coin.”

There was good reason for the hush that swept over the ground. Scotland midfielder Gary McAllister, who later assisted Steven Gerrard when he joined as Rangers manager in 2018, had just rifled a stunning volley into the top corner within two minutes. Could the crowd rally the home side to get back into the game?

“Yeah, once they had got over the shock and realised there were still another 89 minutes left to play,” says Wilkinson. “It was dubbed the Battle of Britain and in many respects it was almost like a Rangers vs Celtic event. The spectators recognise the importance of what is going on and the best way to express their appreciation or annoyance is by creating that wall of sound.

“You think you’ve seen it all but, until you’re in that situation, it far outweighs anything you could have anticipated. In that sense it can a huge advantage — if you’re not used to dealing with it, it can take some getting used to.”

John Lukic was an experienced goalkeeper and Leeds’ Elland Road isn’t a place where shrinking violets congregate but the turning point of the game 20 minutes after McAllister’s opener was down to him.

The moment his error dawns on him is unmistakable as he walks out from his goal, cursing himself after he mistimed a punch from a corner and the ball spun away into his net.

Rangers found momentum thereafter and in the 36th minute, they took the lead when McCoist followed up on a rebound in true poacher style.

“The only way I can describe the second goal is that you’re aware of the sound but it’s hard to envisage that it is being created by those mouths around you,” says Wilkinson.

“It’s as if all of it just joins, to make this white noise. We were fortunate that Leeds had that similar reputation but it was a unique occasion. Ibrox is a proper old stadium — not like some of the Premier League era ones that can be like Hollywood.”

Rangers repeated the trick of silencing the home crowd when they travelled south to Yorkshire two weeks later.

Mark Hateley’s early goal was enough to knock the stuffing out of Leeds and McCoist made it two on the hour to claim the unofficial title as kings of British football.

Rangers 2-0 Borussia Dortmund, UEFA Cup third round, November 1999

Few players have experienced both sides of the Ibrox atmosphere. Christian Nerlinger is one of them.

The German midfielder spent three seasons as a Rangers player from 2001 having been part of the Borussia Dortmund side that faced them in this UEFA Cup tie. It was a night when a packed Ibrox thought the promise of the Dutch-inspired transformation of the club under Dick Advocaat may truly lift off.

Rangers had knocked out UEFA Cup holders Parma to qualify for the Champions League in the August, in what was another classic night. US international midfielder Claudio Reyna recalled how that 2-0 first-leg win over the Italians alone made him believe there was a special power to them playing at home in Glasgow.

“The noise volume walking out of the tunnel is something I will never forget,” he said. “I never recall another time in my career when the opposing players were all looking at each other in disbelief at the stadium shaking.

“Players like Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram, Ariel Ortega… World Cup winners who were just chuckling to each other as they looked around going, ‘Wow, this is unbelievable’.”

Rangers went on to finish third in a tough group containing eventual runners-up Valencia, a Ruud van Nistelrooy-led PSV Eindhoven and the previous season’s beaten finalists Bayern Munich, which saw them drop into the last 32 of UEFA’s second competition, where they faced Dortmund.

Nerlinger was injured but travelled with the team and remembers being able to soak up the four stands as they celebrated a Jurgen Kohler own goal and then one of the all-time Rangers goals, Rod Wallace finishing off a sweeping move from back to front that left the place in raptures.

“Ibrox can be intimidating as a visiting team but I just thought it was special,” Nerlinger says. “The fans support throughout the whole 90 minutes. We weren’t used to that culture. That is what players who played at Ibrox for other teams said to me, ‘They’re 100 per cent all the time, they’re part of it’.

“When Rangers contacted me to sign two years later, this was a big motivation for me because I wanted to experience those nights…

“You just feel like the whole stadium becomes part of yourself.”

Rangers lost the away leg 2-0, the second Dortmund goal coming in added time, then were beaten 3-2 on penalties with Van Bronckhorst one of the three to miss.

Rangers 2-2 Villarreal, Champions League last 16, February 2006

Alex McLeish broke the glass ceiling for Scottish clubs when Rangers became the first team to reach the Champions League’s knockout stage. After a tense 1-1 draw with Inter Milan in the final group game secured the point needed to make the last 16, next up were Villarreal.

Blessed with a world-class duo of Juan Roman Riquelme and Diego Forlan, the Spaniards were a classy outfit who played slick football. What may be forgotten at times, however, is how the intensity of the Ibrox crowd can make life uncomfortable for visiting teams used to a certain culture.

“Every single time Rangers got near our area, the crowd became electric. That really stayed with me,” says Javi Venta, who played centre-back as this first leg ended in a 2-2 draw.

“What surprised us was how direct they were. They would move up the pitch in two or three passes and be near the area.

“The fans would react to a player stopping a counter-attack, jumping into a hard tackle or winning a corner. In Spain, we’re not accustomed to people cheering or applauding when there is a tackle or the ball goes out for a corner.”

Those small wins were needed when Riquelme dinked a penalty into the roof of the net in the first 10 minutes.

“When Roman scored, there were 10 or 15 seconds of silence, but then as we were walking back to our half a big roar happened, to get behind them,” says Venta.

“That’s difficult for fans to do, as it’s an emotional moment when you concede a goal, but they picked themselves back up immediately. That was quite surprising and it confirmed to us that they were not going to lose their will to fight the rest of the game.”

Rangers duly fought back and wrestled parity through goals from Peter Lovenkrands and, after Forlan put Villarreal back in front, and a Ruben Pena own goal with eight minutes to go. They ultimately lost out on away goals after a 1-1 in Spain, but the experience left a lasting impression.

“The atmosphere at that ground is a good memory for us all that we remember fondly,” says Venta. “Arsenal fans created a brilliant atmosphere (when they squeezed past Villarreal 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals) and in terms of size (it’s) Old Trafford, but having said that there isn’t one that compares to Ibrox.”

Rangers 3-2 Braga, Europa League last 32, February 2020

Under Steven Gerrard, Ibrox became a fortress in Europe.

It was 16 games before they lost at home under the former Liverpool captain, which came against Bayer Leverkusen in the next round on from this one. But nothing compared to the joy that was produced in the storming first-leg comeback against Braga.

“I felt pride, happiness, an immense joy when his goals went in,” Hagi Snr tells The Athletic.

“The fans helped the team to come back a lot, as the atmosphere created pressure for the opponent. They encouraged throughout and helped provide the players with the state of mind to overcome themselves, so they felt that, together, anything is possible.

“The intensity, the atmosphere, the emotions they convey are often reflected in the team’s game. Rangers can be proud to have such a fantastic atmosphere.”

(Top photo: Craig Foy / SNS Group via Getty Images)