Giovanni van Bronckhorst was the celebrated man at Rangers after he led the club to the Champions League at the expense of PSV for the first time in twelve years. A blot on the success was the misbehavior of PSV fans, who set off fireworks at the Scots players’ hotel at night and attacked the players’ bus just before kick-off. Van Bronckhorst only got motivation out of it.
Van Bronckhorst played European finals, top matches at World Cups and European Championships and several times the heavily loaded Classic between Feyenoord and Ajax. But even this the former player of FC Barcelona, Feyenoord and the Dutch national team had not experienced.
Before the crucial match against PSV, the Rangers busses were held up by hundreds of PSV fans. Only after fifteen minutes of waiting in a crowd of people could the players and Van Bronckhorst be dropped off at the main entrance. By then the damage was already done.
“There were only supporters around us who daubed and spit on the bus,” Van Bronckhorst told his press conference after the game. “You don’t want to arrive for an important game like this. The bus driver of the second bus with half the team in it drove away in panic, because it was such a severe situation.”
That bus didn’t arrive until twenty minutes later—an hour and ten minutes before kick-off. It was reason enough for Van Bronckhorst to ask UEFA to postpone the kick-off, but the European football federation rejected the request. As a result, the match in the Philips Stadium ‘normally’ started at 9 p.m.
The incident was not an isolated incident: on the night of Tuesday or Wednesday, fireworks were set off at the Rangers player hotel. “Unfortunately, that seems to be part of it these days,” said Van Bronckhorst. “Actually, we have it at every European away game. Now it was twice: at 2 a.m. and 4.30 am. And even during the afternoon rest. We can now set off fireworks ourselves because of today’s victory.”
‘This comes close to my most beautiful moment’
Van Bronckhorst used all the noise in the preparation during the match meeting to motivate his players extra. “Former coach Walter Smith always said, ‘Rangers always have to find a way to win the game, no matter what.’ I said that before the game, and it came true.”
In the eyes of Van Bronckhorst, Rangers fully earned the 0-1 victory in Eindhoven, even though it was initiated by a blunder by PSV defender André Ramalho after the break. “In the first half, faith in the opponent already diminished. Only we didn’t score a goal. This is a great win for us.”
Van Bronckhorst, for example, achieved new success with Rangers, where he has been working since November last year. With the superpower, the club’s former player won the Scottish Cup last season and made it to the Europa League final, lost to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties. It was Rangers’ first European final in fourteen years.
Now there is the first Champions League participation since 2010. “I am very proud because I know what this means for the club,” said Van Bronckhorst. Rangers dropped to the lowest Scottish professional level ten years ago due to bankruptcy.
“Then we were at the lowest point in history. It took a lot of work to get the club here. I want to thank all those people who contributed to that. This comes close to my best moment of my career. measure the absolute top of Europe. We all want to operate on that stage.”
