McLeish: Fate drew us to Artmedia

Rangers manager Alex McLeish believes fate saw his team drawn alongside Artmedia Bratislava in the Champions League group stages.

The Bank of Scotland Premier League champions are scheduled to face the Slovakian conquerors of Old Firm rivals, Celtic, at Ibrox on October 19.

The Light Blues will then travel to Bratislava a fortnight later for the return leg on November 1.

Rangers will open their Group H campaign against 2004 Champions League winners Porto in Glasgow on September 13 before travelling to an empty San Siro stadium for the match against Inter Milan 15 days later.

The Italian giants are serving a four-match ban for supporters after trouble flared during the semi-final against AC Milan last season and their trip to Ibrox will be Rangers’ last match of the group.

But it is the return of Artmedia to Scotland so soon after the defeat of the Hoops which will interest most fans.

The Slovakian minnows ruined Gordon Strachan’s first game in charge of the Hoops with a 5-0 win in the second qualifying round first leg.

Celtic almost overturned the deficit in the return leg when they won 4-0 but the result gave Artmedia passage to the final qualifier against Partizan Belgrade, which they won one penalties.

McLeish told the club’s official website, www.rangers.co.uk: “I reckon it is fate that has paired us with Artmedia.

“We have to respect what they have achieved. They obviously knocked Celtic out, although they were run close in the second leg, but they then went on from there.

“They went to Belgrade and kept a clean sheet against Partizan for 120 minutes and then held thir nerve to win on penalties.”

But the other two teams in Group H offer McLeish issues to assess too.

Porto are now managed by Co Adriaanse, who guided AZ Alkmaar to a UEFA Cup group stage win over the Light Blues last season.

McLeish added: “There is no doubt we face some difficult games.

“We could have been handed an easier draw, but we could have suffered a tougher one. I just feel that whatever you get you have to get on with it.

“What I would say is that I would love us to do better than we did two years ago.

“We don’t want to in this group phase simply to make up the numbers.

“It is my hope that we can be competitive in all of the matches we play and hopefully achieve some success.

“It is interesting that we will be facing Co Adriaanse again having come up against him last season.

“We lost narrowly to Alkmaar, despite playing well in the second half, and I wonder if he will adopt the same kind of tactics at Porto as he did in Holland.

“We will certainly find this out in the coming weeks when we study all of our opponents.”

Inter will include players such as Luis Figo and former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron in their ranks.

But the Rangers manager admits playing in an empty San Siro does not sound appealing.

McLeish said: “It strikes me as horrendous that we will have to play in an empty stadium.

“It will be an eerie atmosphere and I think it might be hard to adjust to that so we will really have to think about this.

“I certainly never played in any completely empty stadiums in my time.

“Of course, Inter have a tremendous name in European football and they can boast some superb footballers.

“They have an excellent coach in Roberto Mancini so we know we face very difficult matches against them.

“However, we are absolutely delighted to be in this kind of company and, as I stressed earlier, we want to make an impact.”

Scheduled games:

September 13 – Rangers v Porto

September 28 – Inter Milan v Rangers

October 19 – Rangers v Artmedia Bratislava

November 1 – Artmedia Bratislava v Rangers

November 23 – Porto v Rangers

December 6 – Rangers v Inter Milan.