Malmo stuck the boot in on Rangers with a cheeky video welcoming them back to Sweden – but Ibrox punters met it with a windup of their own.
The two sides will do battle in Europe on Thursday having met previously in 2011 and 2021, Malmo emerging victorious on both occasions. A 1-0 win at Ibrox followed by a 1-1 draw in Malmo was enough to send them through 13 years ago, while a pair of wins in 2021 ended Gers’ Champions League dream before it started.
All’s well that ended well on the latter as Gio van Bronckhorst went on to take Rangers to the Europa League final. And it seems Malmo have been keeping tabs since.
Ahead of the clash on Thursday, the Swedish club’s socials have put out a video promoting the game, poking fun at Gers for their relegation to the Third Division that followed their first pair of Euro meetings – and for their penalty-shootout defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in Seville.
Over a 20-second package of highlights and scenes of celebration from their past meetings, the clip says: “When we met in 2011, you ended up in the fourth division. When we met in 2021, you ended up in the Europa League final. Welcome back to Malmo, Rangers. We’ve missed you.”
Rangers fans though were quick to point out they haven’t ‘missed’ Malmo – because they barely know who, or where, they are. One fan branded them ‘he most irrelevant club in Denmark,’ and at a glance, you might have corrected them to point out Malmo are from Sweden. But the rest of the replies made it abundantly clear that was the joke.
Another punter said ‘Norway’s smallest football team,’ while one replied ‘I never did like Finland as a place.’ The most scathing dig went as far as: ‘Always hated Lichtenstein…’
But it wasn’t all prickly as another punter simply said: “Give us the 3 points then if you’ve missed us.”