FORMER Scotland captain Bruce Rioch could stand between Rangers and a place in the group stage of this season's Champions League after Danish champions Aalborg yesterday emerged as the Ibrox club's likely opponents in the final qualifying round.
Walter Smith's men have a lot of work to do in Lithuania next week, and if they get through, Rangers can expect another awkward assignment against Rioch's new team.
After recording a 5-0 home rout of Bosnian side Modrica in the first leg of their
second qualifying round, Aalborg Boldspilklub – they are commonly known as AaB in Denmark – have almost certainly done enough to book their place in the next round.
The club who sold striker Erik Bo Andersen to Rangers for £1.2million in 1996 won the Danish championship for only the third time last season, but when head coach Erik Hamren left for Norway to take charge of Rosenborg, Aalborg were left with a gaping hole to fill. Rioch was installed as a replacement in June.
The former Torquay United, Middlesbrough, Millwall, Bolton Wanderers, Arsenal, Norwich City and Wigan Athletic manager had been out of football for four years when he first arrived in Denmark in June 2005 to take charge of Odense.
The Aldershot-born coach who played for Scotland in the 1978 World Cup – he won 24 caps in total – was a candidate for the Scotland post before Berti Vogts was given the job instead. Rioch, whose son coaches in the lower leagues in Denmark, enjoyed a successful 20-month spell at Odense, guiding them to third place in the Superliga in his first season, before resigning in March 2007 due to his wife's illness.
His first priority at Aalborg is to take them into the group stage of the Champions League. The defending champions began their domestic league campaign with two defeats, but Rioch was greatly encouraged by his team's performance and goals on Wednesday.
Aalborg sold top scorer Rade Prica to Sunderland midway through last season, but defied the doubters by hanging on to top spot to collect their first title since 1999. They knocked Sampdoria out of the Uefa Cup last season to reach the group stage, and led 2-0 at White Hart Lane before going down 3-2 to Tottenham Hotspur.
The northern Jutland club were rewarded for winning their first domestic title in 1994/95 by becoming the first Danish club to appear in the Champions League group stages the following season, even if was by default. Aalborg lost their final qualifier to Dynamo Kiev, but were reinstated when the Ukrainians were thrown out of the competition by Uefa over a bribing scandal.
Andersen was top scorer as Aalborg won the 1994-95 title, but the tall, red-headed striker was at Ibrox by the time the Champions League campaign came round. Nicknamed the 'Red Romario' by Aalborg supporters, Andersen will be remembered less fondly by Rangers fans who saw him struggle to make an impact. He scored 15 goals in 23 league games – that included a double in a 3-1 win over Celtic at Ibrox – before being offl-loaded to Odense for £800,000.
Aalborg's main men these days are Swedish international midfielder Andreas Johansson, who signed from Wigan a year ago, and experienced defender Kasper Bøgelund, who has 15 Danish caps and joined from Borussia Mönchengladbach in the summer.
The city itself, the fourth largest in Denmark, is home to the world's largest producer and exporter of akvavit snaps.
If Rioch's team prove to be as strong as the city's tipple, Rangers will need to be at their best to avoid being left with sore heads.
The full article contains 618 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
