When the Rangers players run out on to the pitch on Wednesday in the second leg of the Champions League qualifier against CSKA Moscow, a drama rich in significance will be on the verge of unfolding. McLeish will stand in the dugout, his senses perhaps never so alert. It will be an evening when the nerve ends will tingle as though electrified, the air agitated by the intense feelings of elation and despair swirling in wait to accompany the two possible outcomes. Win or lose, progress or stumble, rise or fall. “There’s nothing bigger, and that includes Rangers’ stance in the backing of Alex Rae at Uefa,” the manager adds.
The 2-1 defeat in Russia two weeks ago was immediately overshadowed by the reaction to Rae kicking Serghei Dadu on the head. Uefa subsequently handed the midfielder a five-match ban for gross sporting misconduct and the fact that the Ibrox club will not be sending him to put his case in person to tomorrow’s appeal hearing has been viewed in some quarters as all but an admission by Rangers that they have little hope of either reducing or rescinding the ban. But McLeish is quick to refute such a theory, as though it is as viable as a paper dam.
“It’s ridiculous to say that we’re not backing him because of Alex not appearing,” he insisted. “It’s more the emphasis and importance of this game coming up, and Alex understands that’s got to take priority. But he knows that we back the man. It’s all right for a writer to say they don’t understand the club backing him and all that stuff, but if they’ve not played at the cutting edge then I’m sorry, they don ’t know what they’re talking about. The ball’s lying loose on the ground and you’ve got a split second to go for it. Nobody knows what our submission’s about, that’s obviously private, but people have to understand we back people if we believe they have a case.”
The exclamations seem to rumble up through McLeish’s body as he delivers them, his feelings animating his frame. But then he quietly, solemnly adds “loyalty is a big thing in this game”. As another question on the matter is begun, he interrupts. “I don’t want to talk any more about it,” he declares. “I’ve already said more than I probably should have. Nothing is more important than the Champions League game, that’s what we want to focus on. We’re not thinking that Alex can’t get his ban reduced, it’s more that we don’t want it to turn into a circus with Alex Rae turning up at airports and that taking priority over what’s the most important game for Rangers so far this season.”
Rae’s challenge, of which the very least that could be said was that it was overexuberant, deflected attention away from Rangers’ performance in Russia. Despite conceding an early goal, and lining up with Peter Lovenkrands out of position on the right and Dado Prso wide on the left, the Ibrox side had the measure of their opponents in the first half, deservedly equalising. Yet when they conceded again soon after the interval, they did not resume their grip on the game, instead allowing it to peter out as the scoreline stood. CSKA were already well into their domestic campaign and Rangers were neither run over nor outmuscled, but not pushing for a second equaliser in the first leg may become a nagging regret if they are caught out on Wednesday.
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Andy Watson was in Russia last Friday night to watch CSKA defeat Volgograd, the third time that he has seen the Moscow side in action. Attention to detail and the thoroughness of Rangers’ preparations will provide a firm foundation on which the team can build. “You get more of a feel for their system and their strengths and weaknesses the more that you see them,” McLeish says. “It’s not going to be a formality and we’re going to have to play to our absolute maximum and have the fans raising the rafters.”
On nights like these, Ibrox seems to come alive, to take on a personality of its own, raucous and loud, thrilling and daunting. Yet for all that Rangers can be sustained by the atmosphere, they must also guard against irresponsibility. They need to score, and the crowd will be urging them forward, but CSKA’s most telling threat lies in their ability to counter-attack, to utilise the pace of Wagner Love, their Brazilian forward, and the guile of Ivica Olic, his Croatian strike partner. It requires a subtle balance of forcefulness and caution, of adventure and vigilance.
With Chris Burke likely to be fit enough to make the bench, at most, the right wing berth should be filled by Nacho Novo, who scored Rangers’ goal in Moscow and whose early performances have shuddered with vibrancy. His pace troubled the CSKA defenders, and his ability to surge past opponents could be a potent threat on the flank, with Prso leading the line, Shota Arveladze as second striker and Lovenkrands on the left. It is a forward foursome that offers pace, power and fluidity. Dragan Mladenovic, who made his debut against Hibs yesterday, could step into the midfield to replace Rae, although it would be a calculated gamble given his lack of match practice. “He’s fit in the true sense of the word,” McLeish says of the Serbian. “What he’s short of is power, stamina and sharpness, which makes him not 100% to go into a game of this magnitude.”
McLeish has only experienced this type of encounter once before, when Rangers travelled to Denmark at the same stage last season and secured a 2-1 victory over FC Copenhagen to send them into the group stages. Afterwards, his voice hoarse, scraped by the exhortations during the 90 minutes, he was interviewed in the Parken Stadium’s tunnel and his thoughts scattered into the microphone, his normally neat composure melted by the night’s emotions. The moment captured perfectly the quivering potency of the encounter, the fraught tension that was suddenly released by the victory like a rush of air from a punctured tyre.
“The Copenhagen game was like a cup final,” McLeish adds. “It was probably an achievement that wasn’t seen to be as significant as a cup final because there wasn’t any trophy or anything tangible at the end of the game, except for the rewards of getting into the Champions League, and the financial rewards.”
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But the prizes that await remain blinkered from McLeish’s vision. In his mind, Wednesday is a challenge that stands alone, a task that must be taken on without flinching or averting your attention. But how might it compare to the FC Copenhagen game last year? “I think Moscow are a better side,” he replies. “It’s difficult to say whether we’re stronger now than we were then. We do have midfield problems at the moment and last year we had Mikel Arteta, Barry Ferguson and Christian Nerlinger. But you might say that we’ve got stronger in other positions.”
The game in Moscow was physical, a collision of strong wills and stout hearts and the Russians may come to Ibrox with an inclination towards disrupting the flow of the game any way they can. Rangers had five players booked in the first leg, including Novo, who was cautioned for throwing the ball down in frustration, an impetuous act that later brought a rebuke from McLeish. But the manager will not be advising his players to tread carefully on Wednesday night, even although a second booking would result in a one game ban in the group stages, should Rangers get there.
“Listen, getting through is the main thing,” he stresses. “If we take a couple of bookings, we’ll sacrifice them gladly to get through.”
More so than usual, on Wednesday the result is the be all and end all for Rangers.