Believe it or not, Thursday’s Europa League last-16 first-leg clash between Rangers and Fenerbahce will represent the first time Jose Mourinho has ever gone head to head with the Glasgow giants in a competitive setting.
OK, yes Mourinho and Rangers have moved in rather different circles over the last 15 years.
But, still, they have shared the European stage often enough to suggest that a man with five continental titles on his CV would have been drawn against the 2021 Europa League finalists at least once.
No wonder Jose Mourinho is champing at the bit, then, as the former Manchester United, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss prepares to tick Ibrox off his footballing bucket list.
“Rangers have a great stadium,” Mourinho smiled when it became apparent that his Fenerbahce outfit could be facing the Scottish powerhouses in the tournament’s last-16.
Now, one of the most decorated tacticians in football history has sampled the cavernous sights of Ibrox once before. Albeit only in a friendly setting.
Mourinho’s Chelsea faced Rangers in the build-up to the 2007/08 season. The season that would prove to be Mourinho’s last during a wildly successful first spell at Stamford Bridge, replaced by Avram Grant early in the campaign following a breakdown in relations with owner Roman Abrahamovic.
- READ MORE: Rangers Europa League Record Since 2017
Rangers beat Chelsea 2-0 in Jose Mourinho’s only Ibrox visit
In front of a boisterous home support – this was a ‘friendly’ in name only to the Rangers fans who turned up in their thousands – the late, great Walter Smith triumphed 2-0 over Jose Mourinho on that July afternoon 18 years ago.
Now, no countdown of Rangers’ worst ever centre-forwards is ever complete until Filip Sebo’s name appears. But, while little more than a pre-season excursion, there were worst ways for Sebo to sign off at Ibrox.
The £1.8 million signing from Austria Vienna had not scored a goal on home soil for 10 months until his speculative strike looped up and in. Tearing his shirt off in wild celebration, you would be forgiven for assuming this was anything but a summertime fitness booster.
Sebo would leave Rangers for Valenciennes only a few weeks later.
By the time he found a way past Hilario in the Chelsea net late on, Rangers were already 1-0 up thanks to a fierce drive from cult hero Nacho Novo. The Spaniard found the corner mere moments after Roy Carroll had denied Frank Lampard up the other end.
Filip Sebo outshone Andriy Shevchenko at Ibrox
Despite fielding such luminaries as Lampard, Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda, Joe Cole and former Ballon D’Or and Champions League winner Andriy Shevchenko, there would be no way past either Allan McGregor or Carroll in the home net.
Rangers, meanwhile, lined up with the likes of David Weir, Alan Hutton and Charlie Adam, with new signings Lee McCulloch and Kirk Broadfoot also making an appearance.
Nearly two decades later, as Mourinho prepares to host Barry Ferguson’s outfit in Istanbul before heading to Glasgow for the second leg, the Portuguese knows that he is unlikely to receive a reception quite as warm as he is used to from the Gers fanatics.
“Now, what I find in the streets of London and other places, is still the Rangers fans thanking me for that final,” he said a few years back, always a place for him in the hearts of those in blue after Mourinho’s Porto outfit defeated Celtic in the 2003 UEFA Cup final.
“The passion for football is never one that is diminished in Glasgow and achievements are often fondly remembered amongst supporters.
“I still have people saying to me, ‘Oh Jose thank you very much for that final’.”
