They are still dubbed ‘Battles of Britain’, although these days Scottish teams tend to battle for European matches against their English counterparts armed as heavily as David was for his duel with Goliath. If the Bible’s original ‘promising youngster’ was content with a slingshot and a few smooth rocks to overcome his towering opponent, then the age when Walter Smith’s Rangers side could beat Leeds United at home and away away in the European Cup in 1992 seems almost as old.
Smith’s team then cost as much, probably more, than Howard Wilkinson’s English champions to assemble, so a tie shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. A financial chasm has opened up between clubs in the two countries since and if the current Rangers squad