With a Europa League last 16 date with Bayer Leverkusen looming large on the horizon, Rangers fans will take any god omen they can get with their team off form and the Germans, well, flying.
Eintracht Frankfurt was the latest club to be routinely dispatched by the on-form BayArena club who dismantled their Bundesliga rivals 4-0 in Leverkusen.
But there is one good omen for Rangers fans heading into the Europa League tie at Ibrox – and it’s not the swelling injury list of the German side.
Ianis Hagi – the player who really dragged Rangers to this stage of the competition with an inspired performance in the 3-2 first-leg win against Braga – was born the day Rangers last beat a German side on away soil.
Who was that club I hear you say? Bayer Leverkusen.
Yes, back on 22nd October 1998 Mrs. Hagi and legendary dad Gheorghe were celebrating the birth of their son in Istanbul as a young Barry Ferguson strolled around the BayArena.
Under the management of Dick Advocaat, Rangers famously defeated Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in Germany with Gio van Bronckhorst and Jonatan Johansson scoring for the Gers.
Rangers would then hold the Germans to a 1-1 draw in Ibrox to secure progression from the second round of the then UEFA Cup.
How fitting that a player who is likely to be at the centre of anything Rangers achieve against Leverkusen, was born the last time the teams played each other.
Call it a good omen, call it a coincidence, but at this point, Rangers fans will take anything they can get in the run-up to facing one of Germany’s form sides.
We couldn’t, could we?
