A window to the past: the Rangers were a great team back then, Siegl remembers the golden Spartan record

Sparta Prague defeated Scottish Rangers FC 1:0 in the 2nd round of the Europa League. The same result ended the first match of the 3rd qualifying round for the 1991/1992 Champions League. The year in which the Czech representative booked a golden entry into the club – and European – chronicle.

“Just say the word Glasgow Rangers and the matches immediately jump out at me,” assures the then team’s goal scorer Horst Siegl. “At home, we won with a lucky 1:0 thanks to an accidental goal by Jirka Nemec, and the rematch in Scotland was unforgettable. The atmosphere! When we warmed up there was hardly anyone in the stands, when we came on there was a boiling cauldron and thirty-five thousand fans,” he recalls.

The Scottish team, however, erased the deficit in Leiden, taking the game 2:0 in extra time. “They saw themselves further, they had chances, Koubic (goalkeeper Petr Kouba) held us up,” he praises his teammates.

But in the end, Sparta cheered. ” Máňa (Lumír Mistr) centred and I scored with such an error, even with the help of the other teammate, the ball just rolled into the net,” Siegl describes the decisive goal.

He proudly claims the goal, but in the official records it is listed as Scott Nisbet’s own. “I also had a little bit of a touch, I remember it well,” Siegl defends his credit.

“I repeat, Mania centred, I hit it on the penalty spot. It’s in my head, you don’t forget goals like that. And if they attribute it to someone else, I don’t mind. I count it. If I hadn’t gone there, it wouldn’t have gone in!” he stresses.

But back then the Scottish team had a different look, relying on footballing skill, no ugly guile. “It was a great team, a super team,” acknowledges Siegl.

“You only have to look at their players. What a name, what a concept. The mainstays were the 1998 European vice-champions representing the Soviet Union, stopper Oleg Kuznetsov and midfielder Alexei Mikhalichenko. Players of African descent you didn’t find in it. So another change, we didn’t have to kneel,” he points out.

For Sparta, the somewhat fortunate progression was perhaps a reflection on the golden entry in the club’s annals. It subsequently knocked out the previous year’s runner-up, France’s Olympique Marseille, and went on to beat Catalonia’s Barcelona, Ukraine’s Dynamo Kiev and went undefeated against Portugal’s Benfica Lisbon in the group stage. They finished second, with the winner (Barcelona) going straight to the final.

In the final count, Letenski stood on the bronze podium of the European Cup. They were the pride of the continent.

Source: AC Sparta Prague, UEFA