Sunday 6th July 2025. Pre-Season Friendly. Rangers (0) 2 (Mohamed Diomandé 52, Findlay Curtis 89) v. Club Brugges KV (Hugo Vetlesen 10, Ludovit Reis 13). Attendance: 29,480
Rangers: Liam Kelly (Jack Butland, 45), Max Aarons (Emmanuel Fernandez, 60), Leon King (Alexander Hutton, 60), Robin Propper (James Tavernier, 45), Jefté Vital da Silva Dias (Ridvan Yilmaz 60), Connor Barron (C) (Bailey Rice, 45), Nicolas Raskin (Mohamed Diomande, 45), Kieran Dowell (Nedim Bajrami, 45), Findlay Curtis, Oscar Cortes (Ross McCausland, 60), Danilo Pereira da Silva (Josh Gentles, 60). Unused sub - Mason Munn (GK)
Club Brugges KV: Simon Mignolet (Nordin Jackers 46), Kyriani Sabbe (Amine Et-Taïbi 46), Jorne Spileers (Tobias Lund Jensen 65), Brandon Mechele (Zaid Romero 46), Joaquin Seys (Samuel Gomez Van Hoogen 46), Hugo Vetlesen (Jesse Bisiwu 65), Ludovit Reis (Vince Osuji 35), Hans Vanaken (Cisse Sandra 46), Christos Tzolis (Shandre Campbell 46), Romeo Vermant (Gustaf Nilsson 46), Michał Skóraś (Kaye Furo 65).
My chosen mode of transportation for this particular excursion, was a return trip on the late Saturday night/early Sunday morning sleeper coach, from Sheffield to Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow. The same National Express 180 motor conveyance provided my transportation for the return journey home too, arriving back at Pond Street at precisely 3.20am on Monday morning, after which I drove the remaining thirty-odd miles to my happy abode on the eastern periphery of Retfordian climes; taking it steady because of the road conditions in the bucketing rain and a whole army of Kamikaze lorry drivers invading the south Yorkshire corridor that is the M18. Hardcore or what?
It's just over a hours walk to Ibrox, from Buchanan Bus Station and/or the adjacent Queen Street Railway Terminus. But it was lashing down with rain when I arrived (ah! God bless that Glaswegian Summer climate); so instead of getting my steps in for the day I took a brief stroll to Stand 11, where I hopped on a number 9 bus to Paisley (you can also use the 9A service) which drops off on Paisley Road West, just a few minutes walk from Rangers FC’s Ibrox Stadium.
When you spot Ibrox Library on the right-hand side of the road, you need alight either the next stop, or the one after that. Which will be on the opposite side of the road to the Kensington or Park Bar (Jimmy's) public houses, or besides the BP garage (on your left) across from the Skene Road stop, which is where you will catch the service back into Glasgow after the game. Buses run every few minutes and a ‘Number 9 return’ will set you back £4.
Brugges had previously played eighteen games on UK soil, without winning a single one of them. But as they eased into two-goal lead inside the opening thirteen minutes, it appeared that particular curse was about to be lifted. Especially as the visitors were dominating play and Rangers were putting in the kind of display that a section of the home support thought warranted voicing their displeasure and booing their side off of the pitch at half-time.
Today marked Russell Martin’s first game in charge of the Gers, who paraded several new signings to the home crowd… offering a wee glimpse of the shape of things to come. But, FFS! Booed off after just forty-five minutes in their opening pre-season warm-up game. Strewth! That's a bloody short honeymoon period by anyone’s standards.
‘Club’, the current Belgian cup holders who finished runners-up in last season’s Belgian Pro-League (after claiming their 19th league title the previous year) and reached the last 16 of the European Champions League, fashioned the opening goal of the game in the tenth minute, working the ball from out on the left to Hugo Vetlesen, whose initial effort was blocked by Liam Kelly but made no mistake with his second bite of the cherry when the ball rebounded to him.
The Blauw-Zwart were seemingly threatening to give their hosts a proper going over this afternoon, when they almost immediately doubled their lead when Ludovit Reis caught the ball with a sumptuous volley from just outside the hosts area, that fizzed unstoppably into the top corner of the net. The celebrations in the sparsely populated visitors section of the ground, were further amplified by applause from the Rangers fans in recognition and appreciation of the quality of Reis’ strike
The last time Brugges had visited Glasgow, was back in November, when they had drawn 1-1 at Celtic in a European tie, after having been in front. One could (almost) safely assume, that in lieu of being such a dominant force in the opening half of this game, that they weren't about to squander a two-goal lead today. Especially with Rangers looking so toothless in attack and uncertain in defence.
Speaking of which, a player I was especially looking forward to seeing today, was Kieran Dowell, who did a fantastic job on loan at Birmingham City last season. Alas, the politest thing I’ve seen written about the player, who has previously represented England at five different age group levels, in the aftermath of today's showing, was: ‘proved to be anonymous’.
The other ex-Blues loanee I wanted to run the rule over, is Ben Davies who contributed greatly to Birmingham’s League One championship winning season. A few discreet enquiries unearthed the information, that Ben, who didn't feature at all today, is actually surplus to requirements at Ibrox and doesn't feature in Mr Martin’s vision for the future.
Half Time memory moment. Part 1 in a series of one. During March of the 1992-93 season, this humble scribe watched both of FC Brugges KV v Rangers, European Champions League Group A games. The first of these in Belgium at the Olympiastadion ( Jan Breydel Stadium) finished 1-1, while Walter Smith's team won 2-1 in the second game at Ibrox, in spite of having the England striker Mark Hateley sent off shortly before half-time.
Half-time haf duly arrived and Club Brugge Koninklijke Voetbalvereniging (so now you know), looked well on course to finally break their hoodoo on British soil… and believe me, this part of Glasgow is most definitely British! The Gers were late coming out for the second-half, maybe, what with this being a Summer game and all that, they had already declared and the game had been awarded to them there Belgians.
Possibly, it was a psychology thing with Brugges already out on time and getting piss wet through waiting for them to arrive, but it soon became apparent that the new Rangers manager had been making wholesale changes, implementing a more effective second-half game-plan and basically, well… kicking some ass! Whatever he’d been saying and doing certainly bucked up his team’s ideas and, effectively f*cked up Brugges designs on that first ever UK win.
The tuneful rendition of: "We hebben gewonnen in het Verenigd Koninkrijk." That I had composed on behalf of my Brugeois companions, to mark such a momentus imminent occasion, will just have to wait until some other time. That's always assuming that any of us present today are still alive to see such an occurrence. “Het zal gebeuren!”, maybe.
Rangers came out all guns blazing and within seconds of the game eventually restarting, Danilo Pereira da Silva tested the collective might of FCB’s defence, with a stinging shot. The chance was provided for him, via a tidy passage of interplay between Findlay Curtis an Nedim Bajrami. Seven minutes into the second-half, Rangers were beginning to duplicate Brugges first-half domination, when Óscar Cortés seized upon a stray pass in the middle of the park, before threading a defence splitting pass through the visitors ranks, picking out Mohamed Diomande who took the ball into his stride and curled the ball into the corner of the net.
Well, that's two quality strikes in a row deserving of applause from both sets of supporters, that have been scored in front of the Copland Street Stand. Not that I joined in giving Diomande any sort of credit myself, I was far too busy scribbling down a copious amount of notes, to indulge in that kind of thing, you understand. Max Aarons (an England U21 international, on loan at Rangers from AFC Bournemouth), almost netted an equaliser, but shot into the side-netting, hoodwinking the unsighted Gers supporters on the far side of the ground into a goal celebration. “Zit stil, hou je mond!”
While Rangers were busting a gut to pull level, Brugges were still looking dangerous on the counter attack and could have put the result beyond their Glaswegian hosts on a couple of occasions with just a little more concerted effort. But inside the very last minute, the liveliest player on the pitch all afternoon: Findlay Curtis, was in the right place at the right time, to add the finishing touch to Nedim Bajrani’s incisive pass… and once again Brugges had snatched a draw from the jaws of victory. Klootzakken! FT: Rangers 2 v FC Club Brugges KV 2
All told, a fair result I reckon, given that both teams had bossed forty-five minutes of the game apiece. The visitors had shown the sort of calibre and quality that will see them challenging on all fronts again this coming season. While Rangers obvious tenacious application, as they battled to retrieve the game and salvage a draw following such a poor start, after they had been dealt a double-whammy of body-blows, will stand them in good stead. Providing that they don't give too many teams such a head-start in the first place.
Cautionary note to travellers: Two consecutive number 9 buses saw the amount of people waiting at the bus-stop and cruised straight past, without any intention of stopping. So don't stand near any puddles unless you want to get soggy feet. Thankfully I had a change of socks and underwear in my jeans pocket. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail n’ all that. I walked further up the road away from the city centre to the next stop, it wasn't very far away and every single bus stopped there.
Due to the circuitous route taken by National Express, my round-trip totalled up to roughly 666 miles. My next port of call will only be roughly 666 yards from my front door, when Retford United extend a warm welcome to the travelling hordes of Mansfield Town supporters to Cannon Park. Feel free to park on my drive to alleviate the congestion on Leverton Road on the night, first come, first served and bring your own tea-bags.
