Football locker rooms are sacred spaces filled with secrets and rites known only to those who have access. They have more in common with confessionals than with changing rooms, and in many cases the confessor is the man who is given the job title of kit warden and who, in the narrower sense, is responsible for putting out the right jerseys, trousers, socks and shoes.
Jimmy Bell was such a man, he worked for Glasgow Rangers for more than 30 years. Until he died unexpectedly on Tuesday. On Thursday evening, Rangers played RB Leipzig in the Europa League semi-finals and they didn’t just want to make up for the 1-0 loss from the first leg. But above all, win for Jimmy. They succeeded. Rangers won 3-1 and advanced to the final in Seville, where they meet Eintracht Frankfurt on 18 May. It will be the most important game for Rangers in exactly 50 years when they won the Cup Winners’ Cup in Barcelona against Dynamo Moscow. For Leipzig, on the other hand, a title option is gone. You still have hope of winning the cup. They meet SC Freiburg in the final in Berlin on May 21.
The Rangers’ victory was based on the fact that their team had exactly nothing to do with the team that had presented themselves in the Leipzig Arena the previous week. There Glasgow was a kind of Dr. Jekyll, at home at Ibrox Park coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team was now Mr Hyde. A feverish team that appeared from the first second as if the 50,000 spectators were digging spurs into the flesh of the eleven players in blue shirts. Even in the VIP box, the upper class roared berserk, though they wore finely knotted ties, and did their part to ensure that every duel on the pitch was fought with the unflinching determination associated with tavern brawls.
But while the Rangers were handling broken glasses, the Leipzig team lined up with torn open Tetra-Paks. They committed their first foul in the 35th minute. At that point, Rangers were already leading 2-0.
Leipzig’s happiness only lasts ten minutes
The first goal in particular was emotionally powerful. Ryan Kent got through on the left and made a low pass into the six-yard box, where James Tavernier pushed the ball over the line from close range (19′). Tavernier had told the previous evening how kit man Bell pulled the captain’s armband over his biceps before every game. Five minutes later it was Glen Kamara who scored from 16 meters to make it 2-0 into the Leipzig goal. RB Leipzig had little more to counter that than shots from his two Spaniards. Once Dani Olmo put just over the angle (28th), shortly before the break Angelino shot defender Joe Aribo in a literal knockout from a free kick. – Aribo got hit in the face, fell over and had to be substituted.
This was the only phase in which coach Domenico Tedesco was able to communicate with his team. In the seclusion of their own cabin, the spectators could not be heard. The Leipzig were then able to have longer ball possession phases. But no compelling opportunities developed from this. Their game lacked the necessary urgency, determination and precision for a long time – until Konrad Laimer was released centrally in the 70th minute and was alone in front of Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor in the penalty area.
Laimer shot the keeper – and was lucky that another great opportunity opened up immediately when he was still busy tearing his hair. Because after a cross from Angelino from the left, striker Christopher Nkunku extended – who else? – the ball into the net to make it 2-1 (71st). With that, the knockout round was balanced. But only for ten minutes.
A cross from Ranges offensive power Kent became long and longer – and flew in a high arc over Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi. Defender Josko Gvardiol scraped the ball off the line. But it landed on John Lundstram, who shot in flat to make it 3-1. That meant the only final – also because in the hour of the death of their kit manager Jimmy Bell, the Rangers professionals were willing to play the game of their lives.