Over And Oot — Five of the WORST Scottish Football exits from European Competition — plus three (Dis) Honourable Mentions
Scotland has been a constant in the footballing world from its earliest days.
After all, the first ever match between different nations was between Scotland and England, from the original representative matches and then the inaugural international in 1872
Scottish club’s reputations had always been somewhat legendary, with Heart of Midlothian’s Bobby Walker reportedly being the King of Norway’s favourite footballer, leading The Jambos to undertake a tour of the country in May of 1912.
While Hearts can boast of that royal connection, the first steps by any Scottish club on the continent of Europe were made by their cross-city rivals Hibernian.
The Hibees reached the semi-finals of the inaugural European Cup, losing to Albert Batteux’s legendary Stade de Reims side that boasted the likes of Just Fontaine and Raymond Kopa.
That run would be as good as it got for Hibs, but clubs thrived in the 60’s and 70’s as Rangers reached the Cup Winners Cup Final in 1961 and again in 1967, the same year that Celtic’s Lisbon Lions stunned Inter Milan to win the European Cup in Scottish Football’s finest hour on the continent.
Celtic would reach another European Cup Final in 1970 before Rangers finally triumphed in Europe, winning the Cup Winners Cup in 1972.
And then we have the near-impossible heroics of Aberdeen, who lifted two European trophies in the Cup Winners Cup and Super Cup in 1983 and Dundee United, who reached the European Cup semi-finals the year after that before reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 1987.
All of this is very much to be proud of, but some of it is not.
For every Lisbon in 1967 and Barcelona in 1972 there’s a Neuchatel Xamax in 1991 and a Progrés Niederkorn in 2017.
And with that, I give you my take on five of Scotland’s worst exits from European competition with a roll of dishonour, if you will, at the end.
5. Kilmarnock 0–2 Connah’s Quay Nomads (2–3 Agg)
It would be fair to say that Kilmarnock was a club very much in the doldrums for years until the appointment of Steve Clarke.
He had revitalised a club which had been battling against relegation, turning them into the third-best team in Scotland.
Regular victories over Rangers, something any club outside of Celtic and Aberdeen would be envious of, never mind a decent-sized club like Killie.
His success meant that he was a wanted man. Sure enough, he would be spirited away to manage the Scotland National Team and was succeeded by Antonio Conte’s former assistant manager, Angelo Alessio.
And when Welsh side Connah’s Quay Nomads came out of the hat, Killie fans were confident of progression.
It would be unfair somewhat to label the Welsh Premier side minnows but having reached the Challenge Cup Final the previous season before being crushed by second-tier champions Ross County.
A 2–1 win in Wales set Killie up perfectly for the home leg, but it wouldn’t be straightforward as Nomads took the lead in the match.
Killie struck twice in the last ten minutes to ensure Ayrshire expected progression in the second leg.
Five minutes into the second half, disaster struck for Killie when Ryan Wignall put the visitors into the lead, levelling the tie on aggregate.
But with Killie still holding the crucial away goal advantage — it was more embarrassing than humiliating.
Stuart Findlay, the hero from the first leg, became the villain when he was dismissed for conceding the penalty that led to the Welsh side’s winner.
That was humiliating.
4. Neuchatel Xamax 5–1 Celtic (5–2 Agg)
Celtic’s 1990–91 season had been underwhelming, to say the least, finishing a distant third behind Aberdeen and Rangers — to whom they also lost the League Cup Final.
The Bhoys also reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup, losing 4–2 to eventual winners Motherwell.
Billy McNeill had been sacked by Celtic in the summer of 1991, with the strain of the club’s financial problems beginning to take their toll on the pitch, with finishes of third and fifth in his final two seasons.
He was replaced by the recently retired Ireland and Arsenal great Liam Brady.
The initial signs were good, as he guided them to three straight league wins — but the honeymoon period was over as quickly as it started.
The club’s form soured with three defeats in their next four games, including a stinging loss to arch-rivals Rangers at Celtic Park.
Celtic’s European prowess was not what it used to be by 1991, but they were still considered heavy favourites.
All predictions of Celtic’s progression would soon be blown apart at the hands (or rather, the head) of Egyptian Hossam Hassan.
His two headers in the first 20 minutes had Celtic reeling, and Celtic were down and out before the break when Christophe Bonvin added a third goal with his head.
Hassan completed his hat-trick roughly as early in the second half as he’d scored his first before Celtic pulled a consolation goal back through Brian O’Neil.
But the humiliation didn’t end there because, with 16 minutes left, Hassan added his fourth and Xamax’s fifth.
The result would stand as Celtic’s record defeat in Europe until their infamous 5–0 loss to Artmedia Bratislava in 2005.
Oh, and the Xamax manager was some English guy named Roy Hodgson. I wonder what happened to him…
3. MYPA 0–2 Motherwell (3–3 Agg, MYPA won on away goals)
As hinted at in the previous entry, Celtic’s financial situation was very dire in the first half of the 1990s.
So dire that they finished the 1994/95 season in fourth place behind runaway champions and rivals Rangers, Hibs and Motherwell and also endured the humiliation of losing the League Cup Final to lower-league Raith Rovers.
Motherwell had come closest to the peak of Scottish Football since their sole league title win in 1932 by finishing second to a runaway Rangers side on their way to nine league titles in a row.
And their reward was a place in the UEFA Cup preliminary round against the little-known Finnish side Myllykosken Pallo-47 or MYPA for short.
The Finns had qualified for Europe by finishing second in the Veikkausliiga, two points behind the winners, TPV Tampere.
It started well enough (ha) for the home side, taking the lead in the eighth minute through Shaun McSkimming.
But the visitors grabbed a crucial away goal just four minutes later in the 13th minute through Niclas Gronholm.
Instead of being a wake-up call for the hosts, it heralded disaster as Petri Tiainen stunned Fir Park by putting the Finns into the lead.
Some pride would be restored in the second leg for Motherwell as they won 2–0 in Finland.
But the damage from the first leg was done, and the Finns advanced on the now-abolished away goals rule.
While an embarrassing night for Motherwell and Scottish Football, this tie is intriguing for the number of notable names who featured in it on both sides.
Future Champions League winner Paul Lambert played in both legs for Motherwell, as did the current Manchester United assistant manager Mitchell van der Gaag.
Also playing for Motherwell was the future Wycombe Wanderers cult hero Roy Essandoh, scorer of that goal against Leicester City in the quarter-finals of the 2001 FA Cup.
Last and certainly not least, turning out in both legs for MYPA was the future Liverpool legend Sami Hyypia.
A Champions League and UEFA Cup winner for The Reds, he would go on to play 105 times for Finland.
2. Hearts 1–2 Birkirkara (1–2 agg)
It would be fair to say that, by the time of Hearts’ second leg of their Europa League tie with Birkirkara, the club was very much back where its fans felt they belonged.
Years of financial turmoil with Vladimir Romanov had led to administration and a spell, albeit briefly, in the second tier.
By the 2016–17 season, it was bright and rosy again,
Former player Robbie Neilson had guided the now fan-owned Jambos back to the top flight with consummate ease.
A comfortable third-place finish followed a year later, bringing European football back to Tynecastle for the first time since 2012 when they nearly caused a seismic shock against Liverpool.
Estonian side Infonet were beaten home and away 6–3 on aggregate, setting up a clash with Maltese side Birkirkara.
The Maltese were no mugs, having taken West Ham to penalties in the previous season. But Hearts were the overwhelming favourites, right?
It seemed that way, with the hosts having more of the ball but not doing anything of note with it — until they got a penalty.
But the hosts would blow this chance as well, Prince Buaben seeing his poor spot kick well-saved.
The canny visitors sensed the vulnerability of their more illustrious hosts and opened the scoring ten minutes after the restart.
Stemming from a free-kick out wide that caused chaos when delivered into the penalty area and, after an old-fashioned stramash, Bubalovic fired the visitors into the lead.
Knowing the hosts had to come out with their away goal advantage, Birkirkara smelt blood, and 12 minutes after Bubalovic’s strike, they doubled their lead through Edward Herrera.
Hardly in the same bracket as Brazil’s 1970 World Cup goal, but the visitors kept the ball moving against the run of play and doubled their tally.
Conor Sammon halved the deficit for Hearts, but much like Motherwell in the previous entry, they left themselves too much work to do and were left embarrassed by a European minnow.
- Progrès Niederkorn 2–0 Rangers (2–1 agg)
Saving the worst for last, we have Rangers being on the end of what is probably the worst result of a tie for a Scottish side ever in Europe.
Like Hearts in the previous entry, this foray into Europe was Rangers’ first, after a turbulent period of financial ruin that had seen the club drop down to the [then] bottom tier.
They would cruise through the fourth tier, then the third, but then need two attempts to get out of the second and into the top flight.
When Luxembourgian side Progrès Niederkorn came out of the hat, the fans were optimistic.
Here was an opportunity to build on restoring their name in Europe — this was bolstered further with a win in the first leg at Ibrox thanks to a Kenny Miller goal.
With only a goal in the tie, Niederkorn defended doggedly, knowing an away goal for Rangers could and would be lethal to their chances.
Kenny Miller saw an effort blocked for the visitor’s best chance of the first 45 while Niko Kranjcar, once of Tottenham Hotspur, came even closer when his header struck the woodwork.
Failure to take those chances came back to haunt Rangers in the 66th minute when the minnows stunned The Gers with a 66th-minute goal from Emmanuel Françoise.
A setback for sure, but maybe it would kick Rangers into life as the infamous Gualtieri goal did for England against San Marino.
Only it didn’t, and not even ten minutes later Rangers found themselves staring into the abyss when a daisy cutter of a free-kick from out wide by Sebastien Thill squirmed its way past Wes Foderingham in the Rangers goal.
Try as they might, Rangers' quest for an away goal that would have sent them through (but obviously leave them embarrassed) was fruitless and they were unceremoniously dumped out of Europe.
The humiliation stacked up, Progrés had never won a game in Europe before defeating Rangers, they hadn’t scored more than one goal in a European game — or tie — before defeating Rangers and their equalising goal was their first in Europe for more than 30 years.
Mind you, it didn’t affect Rangers too much in the end.
Five years removed from the humiliation in Luxembourg they’ve reached the Europa League final with Progrés survivors James Tavernier and Alfredo Morelos very much involved in the run to that final.
With the main countdown over, it’s time to discuss the ones that didn’t make it.
Hibernian 0–7 Malmo
This tie with Swedish giants Malmo came at a comparable time for Hibs as the Xamax tie did with Celtic.
Malmo are no Xamax and were the favourites, but the margin of defeat was. by usual pessimistic Scottish standards in Europe, absolutely shocking.
Hibs had qualified for the Europa League by losing the 2013 Scottish Cup Final to Celtic, their second in a row after being humiliated by rivals Hearts a year before.
Beating Hibs was very much expected, but 9–0 on aggregate? That was certainly unexpected by most.
The scoreline remains the worst by a Scottish side in Europe, having been equalled by Celtic against Barcelona in 2016 and by Dundee United against Alkmaar Zaanstreek in 2022 — but the latter two were away defeats, meaning Hibs are the only side to lose by that margin at home.
Some will argue it’s worthy of a place in the top five, but I’m placing it just outside as I’m emphasizing the upsets caused against Scottish teams.
Aberdeen 1–1 Skonto Riga
The 1994/95 season is one of Aberdeen’s worst-ever, finishing second bottom of the league and winning the play-off with second-tier Dunfermline to keep their top-flight status by the very skin of their teeth.
It was also the season where Aberdeen would endure their lowest low as a European competitor when, barely a decade on from Gothenburg and then the European Super Cup triumph, they were unceremoniously dumped out of Europe by Skonto Riga.
At the time, Skonto were the team in Latvian Football in the years after independence from the USSR, regularly providing the bulk of the national side’s players.
Latvian Football, like in the former Soviet nations, suffered from Russia being given the coefficient for the former USSR, meaning that for many years, the champions would not qualify for the European Cup, now known as the UEFA Champions League.
Providing the majority of a national side ranked 86th in the world, it seemed that Aberdeen would have no problems with the Latvian champions — until they drew a blank in the first leg in Riga.
Now they had to be wary of the away goal threat the Latvians possessed, but as they looked for a breakthrough, disaster struck early in the second half.
The Latvians silenced Pittodrie when Aleksejs Semjonovs opened the scoring in the 55th minute.
Dons’ manager Willie Miller, a veteran of those triumphs of yesteryear, threw on Joe Miller and Duncan Shearer to desperately turn the tide in their favour.
But when it arrived, the goal came too late to change the game.
There was no time to regroup to try and find a winner as the referee blew for full time from the resulting kick-off.
Dunfermline Athletic 1–2 FH Harnarfjordur
Onto the last of the (dis)honourable mentions now with this excruciating moment from Dunfermline’s past as they plunged to defeat against Icelandic amateurs FH — as the club’s official website termed them.
It was a defeat made doubly worst by the fact they couldn’t host the home leg at their own East End Park stadium, owing to the installation of what is now an infamous artificial surface.
Instead, the home leg was played 28 miles away at McDiarmid Park, home of (then) lower-league side St. Johnstone.
Having battled back from 2–0 down to draw 2–2 from the first leg was commendable for a Dunfermline side who hadn’t played in Europe since 1969.
And it was all going to plan for them when Gary Dempsey gave them the lead with 20 minutes left.
But to the horror of Dunfermline fans, players and staff alike, the Icelandic minnows staged a fightback of their own, scoring twice in the last ten minutes, including right at the death, to stun the exiled home crowd.
There were claims of offside against Armann Bjornsson as he raced through to beat Derek Stillie to bring the game level.
The clock ticked down as The Pars looked set to advance to the next round when the visitors struck at the death.
Hallfredsson launched a 90th-minute corner into the crowded penalty area where Tommy Nielsen, a centre-half up for the last chance of the game, made no mistake to snatch the tie from Dunfermline’s grasp.
The Icelanders rejoiced at their “plundering” an unexpected victory in Europe,
However, that rejoicing would be short-lived as they were eliminated in the next round by Alemannia Aachen, denying them a place in the inaugural UEFA Cup group stage.
For Dunfermline, a second appearance in Europe followed just three years later this time.
But, once again, it ended in defeat to opponents from the north, being beaten by Swedish side BK Hacken.
