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This puts last nights game into perspective. Rest easy fellow Bear.

You have to remember that they managed to strike the woodwork at home against Real, that in itself makes them a CL superpower 😀 I think their £70M in the bank masks a lot of their failures in Europe where they have been an unmitigated disaster for years now. I'm happy it doesn't get the spotlight it deserves, more than happy for us to continue to defy the odds and punch way above our weight knowing that it rankles with them. However, if you search outside of this parochial shit hole we reside in, Rangers get plenty of recognition. Funnily enough, as do players who regularly get written off by us Rangers fans.

I love how Diomande has just instantly become an important first-team player. It's been far too long since that's happened.

It's only halftime - we've neither won nor lost the tie. Being proud of the teams performance against a team that are superior to us and havent lost a home EL tie isn't "celebrating". Just recognition of a fantastic performance / result that further enhances our growing EL reputation.

I think we could have won; I think we should have won. A minority opinion, perhaps. When you celebrate draws, you are only a short step away from "hailing" 'brave defeats', and that should never do.

Butland made some incredible stops, but his distribution was really poor at times, so not him. I thought Goldson was very good, but his OG excludes him from this, Soutar was steady and effective. Lawrence was excellent first half but faded in the second. Tav had one of his poorest matches in Europe I thought. Lundstrom was very good and then very bad at different points in the match. Some of his passing had me yelling at the TV. Diomande was excellent, but he came off before the end, as did Sterling who was also very good and Silva too, but both came off. So I've voted for Ridvan, who defended very well, got forward effectively, played every minute of the match and is making me eat my words about him with every passing game. Fair play to him.

Auld age doesn’t come with any favors

👏 Inspired

Over the whole game it has to be Ridvan Yilmaz, who showed a commendable commitment and determination throughout. It’s always good to see a player turn his fortunes around like this.

A Bola - Portuguese media wrote ; A Bola (Portugal) "Benfica's 25 shots compared to Rangers' nine gives an image of the Reds' superiority which, when you look closely, is relative, because what matters in this statistic is how many were on target. And, in that aspect, there was also a draw: 5-5. In other words, even without having more attacking flow, Rangers' vertical football caused problems for Trubin and the wall that protected the Ukrainian. These are alerts for the second leg, where, normally, Rangers find a precious ally in their fans to create a hostile atmosphere for their opponents.

Bill Leckie in The Sun: "Benfica draw isn't as good a result as Rangers think - this team were there for the taking" FFS. I won't provide a link.

Off course, liability is harsh, outwith the OG Goldson had a good game but some fans will continue to berate certain players - that's football. Last night, Lundstram played well in patches and not so well in other patches. However, it looked more like fatigue. He has been one of our most consistent performers this season and has shown he can play and excel at this level. We are suffering from lack of options due to either players coming back from injury, or still out injured. I'd like to hope this will ease over the coming weeks and we also have an international break which will also help.

Tough one, would be easier to pick the disappointments to be honest. Lundstrum was woeful, Goldson's header was outrageous, but even worse, why can't he head like that in the opposition box?! Dessers was posted missing for the majority of the game and it was made more obvious when Roofe came on My pick is Silva mainly because the power of work he went through, didn't stop running and was a great out-ball option... Looked like he was enjoying himself too Special mentions for Dio, Yilmaz and Sterling

In 2008 we were ranked joint 262 in Europe's rankings, we are now ranked 25th - a truly meteoric rise.

Ibrox is very rarely 'rocking' these days, despite regular claims to the contrary. It'll be cagey and I still think we're the underdogs.

Really proud of the team, result and performance but how much longer must we put up with the £38kpw liability that has just cost us, again, another famous result? I can hardly believe we got a result like that with the players missing that we have. I had this tie at 40/60 before the game but now it’s probably 52/48 if we can get the place rocking despite the early ko.

See how I said Dundee was the biggest away game - stuff that.... is it Sunday yet? "Hibs are falling apart again"

I think big Leon will come in to give Souttar a rest and maybe Jack could start. I would keep Roofe on the bench until the last 15 minutes of every game from now on otherwise we risk losing him again , he can still do damage when he comes on.

I went for Jack just on his vital saves , I thought Ridvan,john, Lawrence and Diomande played well , I wasn’t the only one seeing silva getting some stick from the other Portuguese/Benfecia players ? , I loved the interview at the end when the reporter was asking Lawrence about the atmosphere 🤣 he was thinking that’s nothing m8 come to Ibrox next week! Some improvements to make but all in all we can beat them next week! 🤜🏼♥️🤍💙

I'd go the same 11 except for Lundstram and Dessers starting. Give Roofe a half for this game and give Dessers the second for me. Lundstram was towing pretty hard in the second half, early into the second as well - he just can't keep going to the well so I'd put Raskin in beside Jack. It would boggle my mind if he did another 90 on Sunday tbh.

I'm confident we will bring back the points

There's clearly still some development to be found (he can take unnecessary risks and choose the wrong pass at times) but he's also clearly a very talented player. He's certainly an all-round midfielder as he's physical enough and mobile enough to get around the pitch but has that bit more creative guile than someone like Sterling. I do think he'll be better in a less advanced role but happy enough to see him play there when it's required.

Two great fullbacks, Bobby Cox and Bobby Shearer followed by two great ‘keepers Bert Slater and Billy Ritchie.

Well said.

I went for Diomande. He seems to fit in so well and didn't look out of place against Benfica. Plenty of worthwhile contenders though.

Reading The Sun is a bit like staring at the sun. Only an idiot would do it.

What John said...

The question that no one in Scotland is asking, is if we can do it sustained over a number of years, why cant cash rich FC do anything but embarrass themselves in Europe. The press were culpable in forcing Walter out during 9IAR for constantly criticizing our results in Europe. No Celtic manager has ever got similar treatment.

I think liability is a tad harsh, but his deficiencies have been more and more obvious as the months go by, and we still have 2 years of this left at 38k p/w.. Its definitely an issue and something to be cognizant of when thinking of throwing money at Lundstram who is 30 for a new deal.

The ref was kind to Benfica last night. The penalty aside if you look at where the freekick they scored their second was taken from, compared to where the foul was, that's poor refereeing. Di Maira simply can't play that cross from where the freekick was made and that shouldn't be a hard thing to enforce.

Undoubtedly so. Despite the excellent result today there's still a gulf in class between the two teams.

Good to watch a game without the tone deaf drummer

We showed great fight and character. Pity about the 2 poor goals. We were in a bad position tonight with so many injuries and I will take the draw. Some of our players looked dead on their feet tonight. Hopefully the crowd will get that little bit extra out of them next week.

If it wasn't for Jack Butland we would already be out of this tie.

It's always "black or white". If he scored a goal or two with the same performance the same "fans" would be saying how brilliant he was. He had a job to do tonight and he did it. He was lone forward and he worked his socks off. Linked the play reasonably well. He's no Ronaldo, but he has proven he is an asset as he scores goal, never hides and makes sacrifices for the team.

You know the thing that really baffles me about VAR, why do they call the ref to view the video? if the linesman flags for offside/penalty, or any other incident the ref accepts it! the VAR operators are qualified refs so why does VAR call the ref to view it?

Compare and contrast to the one West Ham were denied tonight. Ref asked to review a blatant hand ball and stuck with his original (wrong) decision of no penalty 🙄

if we can only win 1 i want it to be Dundee