Ryan Jack admits he was stunned at how vociferous Jude Bellingham was towards his Borussia Dortmund teammates when the Germans played Rangers at Ibrox in 2022.
The Light Blues were drawn against the Bundesliga giants in the Europa League knockout play-off round on their way to the final of the competition that year.
Nobody gave Rangers a hope in hell over the two legs but Giovanni van Bronckhort’s charges delivered a stunning 6-4 aggregate victory to dump Dortmund out.
Rangers won 4-2 at the Westfalenstadion before securing a 2-2 draw in Glasgow a week later to confirm their Europa League progression.
Jack – released by Rangers at the end of last season – was up against the prodigious Bellingham in midfield during the second leg at Ibrox and recalled how incredible the Englishman was.
Bellingham scored on the night but it wasn’t his overall performance or goal that Jack remembers most about the then 19-year-old from that famous night in Govan.
Jude Bellingham’s confidence stunned Ryan Jack
Ryan Jack was speaking on the Open Goal podcast about Bellingham across the 2-2 draw at Ibrox and told how he couldn’t believe what the youngster was screaming at experienced defender Mats Hummels.
Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday initiated the conversation. He said: “He (Bellingham) scored in both games but I’ll never forget at Ibrox when he was hammering players, pointing at people saying ‘f***ing pass the ball’ and all that, he was like 19-years-old!
Jack then interjected and shared his take. He said: “He (Bellingham) was like that on the pitch. He would shout stuff at (Mats) Hummels and during the game, you’d just be like ‘what the f**k’.
“Hummels has won the World Cup! Like you’re 19-years-old, d’you know what I mean? He’d be like ‘give me the f***ing ball, give me it!’, to top players.”
Jack on the first-leg in Dortmund
Before that, Rangers had already secured an unbelievable 4-2 win on German soil to take back to Govan. James Tavernier, John Lundstram and Alfredo Morelos got on the scoresheet with the Rangers goal tally topped off by Dan-Axel Zagadou’s own goal.
Jack recalls the moment Lundstram fired Rangers into a 3-0 lead and just struggling to comprehend exactly what was happening.
The former Ibrox ace continued: “4-2 it finished and we were 3-0 up at half-time. I’ll never forget it. 3-0 up and I’m going back to halfway line just looking up (at the scoreboard) and seeing 3-0. I was just thinking, ‘what is actually going on?'”
The memories for Rangers fans on those two nights will last as long as they live. It was one of the greatest weeks in the history of the football club as Dortmund were put to the sword.
What followed was even more gobsmacking as Rangers reached the final after a simply unforgettable two-legged semi-final triumph over RB Leipzig.
The less said about the final, the better. But the run was something Rangers fans may never experience ever again.
