Rangers F.C. in Europe

Rangers played their first official match in competitive European football on 2 October 1956. This was a European Cup second round game against OGC Nice of France. The match ended in a 2-1 home victory for Rangers thanks to strikes from Max Murray (Rangers' first European goal) and Billy Simpson.

The club's first ever match against European opponents however, was a friendly match against Austrian side First Vienna in the 1903-04 season during a tour of Austria and Czechoslovakia which resulted in six victories from six matches. They won the match 7–2. [cite book
last = White
first = John
title = The Rangers Football Miscellany
publisher = Carlton Books
date = 2006
pages = p. 10
isbn = 1-84442-158-9 ]

In season 1960-61 Rangers took part in the inaugural European Cup Winners Cup. In this season they became the first British club to reach a European final, eventually losing 4–1 on aggregate to Fiorentina. Rangers were also runners-up to Bayern Munich in 1966-67. However, they did go on to win the trophy in 1972 after defeating Dynamo Moscow.

The 1982-83 season saw Rangers play in the UEFA Cup for the first time. They defeated German side Borussia Dortmund in the first round but were knocked out in the following round by another side from Germany, 1. FC Köln. Over a quarter of a century after their first appearance they reached the 2008 UEFA Cup Final. They played Russian side Zenit Saint Petersburg at the City of Manchester Stadium, but lost 2-0 in a match overshadowed by the rioting of Rangers fans in Manchester.

Rangers became the first British club to appear in the UEFA Champions League, when in 1992 they defeated Leeds United in a qualifying round dubbed the Battle of Britain due to the clubs being the respective champions of Scotland and England. In this the inaugural season of the Champions League the tournament was open only to national champions, with qualifying rounds leading to a group stage of eight teams in two groups of four, and only the winners of each group progressing to a one-off final match. Although unbeaten Rangers finished second in Group A one point behind French champions Marseille, who defeated AC Milan in the final. The French club were later involved in a match fixing scandal and were stripped of their title. It is not clear whether the group stage of the 1992-1993 Champions League should be considered as a semi-final, given that the winners of each went into a final, or as a quarter final, given that it was contested by the last 8 teams in the competition: However Rangers' second placed finish in their group made them one of the top 4 teams in that season's tournament, their highest ever finish in the UEFA Champions League and equalling their 1959-60 run to the semi-finals in its predecessor competition the European Cup.

Rangers became the first Scottish club to qualify from both the Champions League group stage in 2005-06cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/4494912.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Rangers 1-1 Inter Milan|date=6 December 2005] and the UEFA Cup group stage in 2006-07.cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/6161154.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Auxerre 2-2 Rangers|date=23 November 2006]

Season 2008–09, was Rangers' 48th European campaign. They have competed in European competitions in more seasons than any other British club. In fact only Real Madrid, Barcelona, Anderlecht and Sporting Lisbon have taken part in more campaigns.

Matches in Europe

Record by country of opposition

*"Correct as of 5 August 2008" P - Played; W - Won; D - Drawn; L - Lost

Notes