Old Firm join forces against Artmedia

OLD FIRM bosses Alex McLeish and Gordon Strachan have joined forces to plot the downfall of Artmedia Bratislava.

Rivalries were put to one side when Rangers manager McLeish sought out Strachan for inside information on the team who destroyed Celtic’s European campaign.

Despite the bad blood between the clubs, the two men remain good friends following their playing days together at Aberdeen and McLeish did not hesitate to contact Strachan when fate threw Rangers and Artmedia together.

The Slovakian outfit sent shockwaves through Europe when they thrashed Celtic 5-0 in a Champions League qualifier.

It was Strachan’s first competitive game in charge and their worst ever European defeat.

Artmedia were then subjected to a 4-0 reverse at Parkhead in the return leg but it was not enough to prevent the Hoops crashing out of Europe.

Clearly still smarting from that experience, Strachan has aided McLeish’s attempts to make sure another Scottish club does not suffer at the hands of the Slovakians tonight.

McLeish said: “We have already spoken about the game over the past few weeks and I have plenty of information on Artmedia.

“I probably know just as much, maybe even a little bit more than Gordon, because they have had all this experience in the Champions League now and grown in stature in every game.”

McLeish admits he can take little comfort from Artmedia’s inability to cope in front of 60,000 baying fans at Parkhead.

That game suggested they were a team who did not travel well but another shock win, against Porto in their last Champions League outing, dispelled that notion.

McLeish added: “The Celtic game was a long time ago and they have added a couple of players since then.

“They have also coped with the cauldron of the Dragao in Porto so it’s difficult to make a comparison between then and now.

“I don’t think they’ll change tactics from the way they’ve played in the early European games so we expect a similar hard-working group who will counter-attack as much as possible.”

McLeish made all the right noises about showing respect and not underestimating Artmedia’s threat.

But the Rangers boss knows he could not ask for a better chance to progress to the knock-out stages.

Inter Milan sit top of Group H, as predicted by most observers, but Porto, the team expected to be battling Rangers for second place, have failed to take any points from their opening two games.

That means maximum points from back-to-back meetings with bottom seeds Artmedia would put the Glasgow giants in a strong position to progress.