Rangers had one hand on Europa League trophy - Seville continues to be a cruel city

Heaven is a place on earth. Sadly, it isn’t Seville. It never seems to be Seville.

Attractive city though it is, Scottish football fans tend not to find much joy amid its sun-drenched plazas and orange tree-lined streets.

Allan McGregor, who saw five penalties flash past him into the net, certainly won’t choose to retire there. Aaron Ramsey, meanwhile, will never wish to return after he saw his effort, Rangers’ fourth kick, saved by Kevin Trapp. The on-loan Juventus player was meant to make the difference to Rangers’ campaign when he arrived in January. But not like this. Cruel, cruel, cruel.

Rafael Borre hit the winning kick for Eintracht Frankfurt in the shootout, high to McGregor’s right. You know what the say about German teams and penalties ...

Seville is where Celtic’s dreams were extinguished at the same stage of the same competition in 2003. It’s where, forty years ago next month, Scotland fell 4-1 to Brazil in a World Cup clash remembered, in this country at least, for Davie Narey’s stunning opening goal. A “toe poke” Jimmy Hill described it at the time and the pundit would never hear the end of it.

Narey’s shot briefly had a rival for the most famous goal scored by a Scottish team in the city. Joe Aribo’s strike, after 57 minutes, certainly threatened to become the most significant. As in the case of Narey, whose finish into the top corner was reckoned to have succeeded only in making Brazil angry, perhaps the goal had simply come too early. Rangers still needed to negotiate over half an hour on another sweltering night in the city.

They managed to defend their lead only for another dozen or so minutes before Filip Kostic’s cross from the left was diverted into the net by the tip of the right boot of the