The last time they met

By: Ian Rose | February 24th, 2008

There are 16 teams remaining in the UEFA Cup, some of them perennial European squads, like Bayern Munich and Rangers, others new to the continental cups, like Bolton. In their histories, some of these 16 have met up before, and might just again if they progress far enough and the draws go a certain way. Here are a just a few memorable matchups in the history of these 16 clubs against each other.

Everton v. Bayern Munich, 1985 Cup Winners’ Cup Semifinal
After a 0-0 draw in the first leg of the semifinal, the tie went on to Munich, with the German giants heavy favorites. Everton pulled off one of the great upsets in British football history, beating Bayern 3-1 on the road, on their way to the only European trophy in the history of the club. That year, they also won the league and should have gone on to compete for the European Cup, but the Heysel Stadium disaster, and the subsequent ban on English teams in Europe, kept them out.

Rangers v. Bayer Leverkusen, 1999 UEFA Cup Second Round
Though Rangers have never faced their Round of 16 opponents, Werder Bremen, in Europe, they have faced German sides for a total of 43 European matches. The most recent against Leverkusen saw the Scots take a first-leg away win, 2-1, in Germany and hold on to a draw at home to progress. Parma would stop Rangers in the next round.

Rangers v. Tottenham, 1963 Cup Winners’ Cup First Round
This battle of Britain was the highest-scoring two-legged tie in the Cup that year. Spurs opened with a rampaging 5-2 win at home, essentially putting the tie away then and there. They followed it up with an impressive 3-2 win away at Ibrox, returning to London with an 8-4 aggregate win.

Anderlecht v. Werder Bremen, 1994 Champions League Group B
Anderlecht were in over their heads from the beginning in Group B, faced with a group of death containing AC Milan as well as Werder and Porto. Werder took both matches, 5-3 in Germany and 2-1 in Belgium, but neither side progressed. Porto went on to lose in the semifinals and AC Milan won the tournament over Barcelona.

Bolton v. Zenit St. Petersburg, 2006 UEFA Cup Group H
In the Trotters’ first-ever European campaign, they progressed to the group stage, and faced a tough Zenit side at Reebok Stadium. Sam Allardyce’s Bolton came out the better side, for a 1-0 win. Similarly to this year’s Bolton run, they were undefeated in the group, with this their only win but with three draws. Both sides progressed out of the group stages, Bolton losing in the round of 32 to Marseille and Zenit making it to the quarterfinals but losing to eventual Cup winners Sevilla.