Rangers manager Walter Smith will return to the Steaua Stadium in Bucharest as his side fight to keep their Champions League ambitions alive against Unirea Urziceni. But Smith remembers his last visit to the stadium where his Rangers side were defeated back in 1995.
Unirea have adopted the Steaua Stadium for their home games in the Champions League due to the limited capacity of their own stadium. The ground is 25km from the town of Urziceni, with its population of 17,000, and the club will be hoping to capitalise on their 4-1 victory at Ibrox.
Smith admitted to being unsure as to the size of crowd expected at the game, but remembers the atmosphere in the stadium from his travels 14 years ago, albeit against a different club.
“I don’t know what to expect crowd wise. If we were to read the press in Scotland we are not quite sure how many people will turn up to the game,” said Smith.
“Certainly the last time we were here it was a terrific atmosphere, a full house and it was a great atmosphere to play football in.
But he added: “It wasn’t a great result for us either.”
During Smith’s first spell as manager of Rangers, his side played Steaua Bucharest at the stadium in the opener of their 1995 group campaign. The match was close, although Steaua enjoyed most of the possession, and Rangers were on course to secure an away point.
However, five minutes from the end Daniel Prodan scored a stunning volley from the edge of the box to give the home side a 1-0 victory.
Alan McLaren was sent off in the match after an altercation with Damian Militaru and earned a three-match ban which only added to the disappointment.
In the return home leg at Ibrox, Paul Gascoigne scored an impressive solo effort, but the match finished 1-1.
In 1998, under Graeme Souness, Rangers reached the last eight of the European Cup, having knocked out Dynamo Kiev in the first round and Gornik Zabrze in round two with some ease.
However, on a cold night in Bucharest Rangers could do little as the best side in that club’s history won 2-0. In the return leg Rangers won 2-1, but it was not enough and exited the competition.
Smith will be hoping to break the Bucharest jinx and needs to avoid defeat if the Light Blues have any hopes of progressing to the knockout stages.
