It is nearly 30 years since Rangers’ 7-2 hammering of Alania Vladikavkaz in the Champions League qualifiers but the memory of such humiliation remains vivid in the memory of the Russian side’s goalkeeper that night.
It’s fair to say Zaur Khapov, casting his mind back to August 1996, does not have too many fond memories about the night the Russians welcomed a rampant Rangers side to Alania.
It took just 33 seconds for the visitors from Glasgow to open the floodgates. By the time the clock struck 18 minutes, the legendary Ally McCoist had a hat-trick. The first Gers player to hit a European treble in a decade.
It was five by the hour, Peter van Vossen and Brian Laudrup deepening Khapov’s misery. Another Laudrup effort and a final strike from Charlie Miller put the finishing touches on one of Rangers’ biggest ever wins on the continent, while leaving Khapov’s poor spouse in tears.
Rangers hammered the Russians
“Oooh, that match is hard to forget. My wife cried after this game,” Khapov now tells Sport24. “This was the first stage of qualification for the Champions League. We lost the (first leg) match in Scotland 3-1.
“(Manager Valery) Gazzaev gathered the leaders before the match, (including) me. We decided to change the formation and transferred (Omari) Tetradze to the defensive midfielder role in order to control the ball more.
“But we took a big risk. Plus, Gazzaev asked to play aggressively from the first minutes and score if possible.”
In the end, it was Rangers who made that flying start.
Clement’s side could make Champions League return
“It’s the 10th minute of the match, and we are already down 2-0!,” Khapov adds with a laugh. “After such a start, it was difficult for us to fix anything. The situation was so absurd that at the end of the meeting our fans began to root for the Rangers!”
Walter Smith’s side would go on to win just one more game in European football that season, finishing rock bottom of a Champions League group which also contained such luminaries at the time as Ajax, Grasshoppers and Auxerre.
Nearly 30 years on, Rangers are well-placed to secure another shot at the Champions League. On a night in which Celtic entered seventh heaven themselves, Philippe Clement’s Gers fought from 1-0 down to defeat Kilmarnock at Rugby Park thanks to the brilliance of Jack Butland, James Tavernier and Tom Lawrence.
