IT was a night of a concoction of emotions. Three decades on, those who were there - both on the park and off it - still recall the sights, sounds and, most of all, the feelings.

Rangers have never been so close to the Champions League final as they were when CSKA Moscow arrived at Ibrox on this day in 1993. The dream that died 90 minutes later is one which may now never be realised.

A campaign that had delivered the euphoria of victory over Leeds United stands as one that will forever be tinged with controversy. Above all, there is both regret and pride.

Failure to beat the Russians ultimately did not cost Walter Smith's side a shot at AC Milan and the silverware. That spot, and in the end the title, would belong to Marseille as the French sealed their progression with victory in Belgium.

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It was not the fairytale end that the story merited, not the script that so many had pre-written. For Martyn Ramsay - author of 'The 50 Greatest Rangers Games' and 'Revolution: Rangers 1986-92' - it was one that he had never even considered possible.

“I was 12,” Ramsay said. “And you know when older guys speak about football? They do it with such assurance that you just believe them.

“I was in Brugge for the 1-1 draw and was a bit disappointed. Some guy in front of me said ‘they won’t win here’. He said it with such a matter of fact confidence that I just repeated that, as you do.

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“Marseille were going to drop points, so we just had to not lose in France, and we were obviously going to beat CSKA. And that was it, I was going to Munich and going to the European Cup final.”

History, of course, tells the true version of events. Rangers had helped create the Champions League but there would be no reward for their efforts in it as they fell agonisingly short, stumbling at the penultimate hurdle when the finish line was in sight.

Ramsay recalls the excitement and adrenaline of the build-up. At the whistle, Ibrox showed it's appreciation to those who had come so far and been so close.

“We missed a chance early on and we needed that early goal to keep the belief,” Ramsay said. “We were on it, on the front foot and it was just surely a matter of time. Then one of the most painful things in football, when you are waiting on another result, is silence.

"It comes fairly early that Marseille have scored. That was not part of the script, not part of what I was promised. And then nothing went in.

“You were resigned, eventually. And with no shame, I was in tears. Devastated, absolutely devastated.

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“That night, the cheery, optimistic believer turned into a very cynical and pessimistic football fan. That guy was probably born that night.

“We had a couple of old boys in front of us who saw me in a state of distress. One of them said ‘don’t worry wee man, you’ll see us win it’. And I am not sure I believed that guy as much as I had believed the guy in Belgium."

Ramsay would not have been the only one. No matter what or how Rangers tried, there was no way by keeper Evgeni Plotnikov and a Trevor Steven effort that hit the woodwork summed up the frustration of the occasion.

For Stuart McCall, signed from Everton in the summer of 1991, that inaugural Champions League campaign should still be cherished. It is, after all, something to be hugely proud of.

"We find out early doors that they have gone 1-0 up and we did everything but score a goal at Ibrox," McCall said. "We laid siege to them, we had opportunities, the crowd were behind us.

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"Right up until the final kick, if Brugge were to get an equaliser, and anyone can score a goal in the last minute, then we would have felt gutted then if we had not beaten CSKA at home. We find out that they had won so, in the end, it would have been irrelevant for us. It would have been nice to do it.

"I have got to be honest, and I know it probably stings a lot of people, but I look at it the other way. As much as it was a disappointing end to it, to be part of it and have that pride and enjoyment of it, that far outweighs the disappointment for me. Of course it would have been fantastic to get to a final but even to give ourselves that chance in that season was brilliant."

The revelations surrounding Marseille and Bernard Tapie will forever leave a cloud over that club and a sour taste in the mouth at Ibrox. The dismissal of Mark Hateley against Club Brugge, the offer of a bribe not to play in France and Marseille's 6-0 win at home to CSKA, in a section where every game was decided by fine margins, will still anger many.

"One of the things I can remember about after the game, as soon as the whistle goes, is the euphoria of their players," McCall said as he recalled the sight of a bandaged and bloodied Richard Gough taking the acclaim of the Ibrox crowd. "Obviously afterwards you think 'hmm'. At the time, we were all gutted and went to shake their hands.

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"We had to do our job, we had to win and you can't look at other teams. It would have been nice if we had won and then be able to look at the other game but it didn't happen.

"To see them high-fiving and running around the pitch as if they had won the Champions League was a bit strange. I remember that."

That ovation that Rangers received was more than merited. The nights against Leeds will go down in Ibrox folklore and it was a season that provided so many moments that live on in the memory as a team that would go on to achieve legendary status came so close to immortality.

Ian Durrant's strike in Marseille was one of the standouts in that regard. It set up a shoot-out but one that Rangers were on the wrong end of and the favour that was needed from Brugge never materialised.

"My overriding memory of that night is the ovation we got from the punters," McCall said. "It was as if we had done it. It was just a thank you from them to us, and likewise from us to them.

"We were dejected at the start of the walk around the park and it ended up full of pride. That is my abiding memory.

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"We put a lot of pressure on, we had lots of chances, we gave everything we had. But the ovation we got from the support meant a lot to us.

"We had gone ten games undefeated in Europe and we had come so close. But it was one of them, we hadn't done enough in the end. Looking back, it was an unbelievable campaign."

Within weeks of the European heartache, Smith's side confirmed their dominance in Scotland as the domestic Treble - earned thanks to a commanding Premier League win and cup final triumphs over Aberdeen - was secured for the fifth time.

Greater glories would come in the years that followed in a parochial sense. Yet those ambitions of continental silverware became increasingly forlorn.

"As good as it was to do in terms of winning the Treble that season, we could never capture that in Europe again," McCall said. "We couldn't hit those heights.

"I was fortunate to be there for seven years and everyone will look to the nine-in-a-row season as brilliant. And the eight-in-a-row was good as well.

"But deep down, the 1992/93 season would take some beating in a lot of ways. The football, the goals, the European run, everything. It was just an incredible season and time to be involved with Rangers."

There was an affinity between the players and the punters that, it could be argued, has never been seen since. The side would become the one that won together and drank together as bonds of friendship and trust that went way beyond the 90 minutes were formed.

Ramsay recalls the feelings of optimism in the summer of 1993, the belief that Rangers were going places as one of the pre-eminent clubs on the continent. It wasn't known at the time, but CSKA was the end rather than the beginning.

"You are right," Ramsay said. "The disappointment from Levski to Athens to the humiliations when we did get to the group stages were hard to take, because we believed that we were part of that illustrious company. In retrospect, it was always going to be that way.

"It was a team who were a band of brothers that would run through brick walls for each other, but they were broken, all of these guys would pull up with injuries. You had an incredible spirit, but it came at a price.

"It was gritty, it was very British, but the game had moved on. The door for Scottish teams was closing just as we thought it was opening because of how the Champions League would shape football finance and that set us down the road of nine-in-a-row because that became the focus, became the obsession."