Rangers cult hero may be unleashed against Celtic in Champions League as he remains Ibrox diehard

Rangers cult hero may be unleashed against Celtic in Champions League as he remains Ibrox diehard

When Slovan Bratislava makes their tournament debut this evening against Celtic, manager Vladimir Weiss Sr. will try to mastermind another seismic Champions League shock result—while he’s prepared to unleash a Rangers cult legend. Under Weiss Sr.’s leadership, Artmedia Bratislava, the Slovakian underdogs, destroyed their Scottish counterparts 5-0 in the first leg of the second qualifying round in 2005. They then won 5-4 on aggregate to go to the group stages.When Slovan Bratislava makes their tournament debut this evening against Celtic, manager Vladimir Weiss Sr. will try to mastermind another seismic Champions League shock result—while he’s prepared to unleash a Rangers cult legend.

Under Weiss Sr.’s leadership, Artmedia Bratislava, the Slovakian underdogs, destroyed their Scottish counterparts 5-0 in the first leg of the second qualifying round in 2005. They then won 5-4 on aggregate to go to the group stages.

Before their league phase opening in Glasgow’s east end, the immensely experienced coach maintains that his team is “not here as tourists,” despite Slovan having advanced through four rounds of qualifying earlier in the season. It’s loading… The 59-year-old believes he and his Rangers-supporting son Weiss Jr. have devised a strategy that might pose a threat to the Scottish champions, albeit he is well aware from personal experience that upsets can occur at Europe’s top level. When he was asked about the Artmedia outcome, he reminisced, “That was a long time ago.” It goes without saying that you have pleasant recollections that no one can take away from you. However, the Celtic we face now is different. Compared to 19 years ago, they play football in a different way.

Brendan plays football here, but his style is different; it’s fast. However, we are also able to accomplish it. We’ll give it our all on stage. We’re aware of what to anticipate. Our guys are familiar with the atmosphere because they have played here. This is, in the opinion of many other players, the greatest atmosphere available anywhere in the world. However, I believe we have enough experience to avoid making mistakes and giving in to that atmosphere.
“Of course, we know that most of the game we will be under pressure. Because obviously, just like we get the energy and emotions from our fans, Celtic will get their energy from their fans. So you have to have the self-confidence, but also the discipline.”

Weiss Snr added: “When I joined Slova, I wanted to prove something and I am happy that we managed to do that maybe even earlier than I thought. But after three years of working with the team to get into the main stage of the Champions League, I am very proud of the team, of the players and of the fans.

“Because Slova have evolved. We have brought joy to the fans and the fans have come back to the stadium. And this is the biggest motto of our work. I think the players deserve to be here. We have not come here as tourists. It’s a different kind of a model of the Champions League. We will try to snatch some points, maybe one point, maybe surprise them. Everything is possible in football. We have proved it many times and we have seen what is possible to do. We are very happy, and are looking forward to it.

“We will want to show our fighting spirit, our pride, and show what we are made of. It’s the Champions League, it’s the best teams in the world. It’s like the club World Cup. You have to be excited about it. And we can always surprise people. They are fast and they have great quality. We know where we can surprise them. If we manage to do that, if we manage to break their good defence, if we manage to win one-on-one duels, then it’s going to be good.”
The Weiss family also regularly discusses Rangers and Celtics in light of his son’s incident at Ibrox. While on loan from Manchester City, he won both the League Cup and the Premiership, and he might contribute to the effort to defeat Celtic once more. “All our lives we have been talking about Celtic and Rangers,” the Slovan coach remarked. Rangers, of which my son was a player, will play Celtic. He remains a fan of the team. He has the finest memories of Rangers because they won two titles while he was here. Furthermore, the Celtic derby is the greatest derby ever.

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