Serbia in a fortnight's time thanks to a last-minute
goal from substitute Nacho Novo at Ibrox tonight
against Red Star Belgrade.
The late strike may well prove to make all the
difference between reaching the Champions league group
stages and falling into the UEFA Cup again - and on
that count alone Novo has surely underlined just how
vital a player he is to Walter Smith's squad.
The Rangers Manager made two changes from Saturday
with Kirk Broadfoot and Brahim Hemdani replacing the
injured Sasa Papac and Kris Boyd against a Red Star
side making their first visit to Ibrox in seventeen
years.
Both sides made a cautious start - with the Slavs
coolly keeping possession for long spells, at times
denying Rangers sight of the ball and territorial
advantage, frustrating the 35,364 spectators as they
called for the home side to launch attack after attack
on Red Star's goal.
Walter Smith had however adopted a cautious tactical
set-up of 4-5-1 with Jean-Claude Darcheville the lone
striker - but the 'Gers legions became more and more
frustrated as the first-half developed with barely a
goalscoring opportunity worthy of the name.
Indeed it was Red Star who almost opened the scoring
in 39 minutes when Carlos Cuellar for once missed a
long clearance by goalkeeper Ivan Randelovic, Filip
Dordevic's 25-yard volley skimming the crossbar.
The half ended in chaos when Nenad Milijas committed a
bad foul on Alan Hutton. It was the latest in a series
of cynical fouls committed by the Slavs, that had
already seen Swedish Referee Martin Hansson dish out
three yellow cards to the visitors. Both sides squared
up to each other as the game threatened to get out of
control, but remarkably the referee decided to calm
everyone down by blowing for the interval a touch
early.
There was little perceptible change in the play as the
second-half opened - and with an hour gone there had
not been a single effort on target at either end
worthy of the name.
With 64 minutes on the clock the home side made a
double change with Nacho Novo and Daniel Cousin
replacing DaMarcus Beasley and Jean-Claude
Darcheville.
The crime count was mounting - within four more
minutes two more Red Star players had been
yellow-carded, both for fouls on the outstanding
Cuellar, namely Milanko Raskovic and Dordevic.
Cousin's introduction had lifted the crowd - and he
almost repaid their belief in 75 minutes with a shot
on the turn from 25 yards following a Barry Ferguson
pass that flashed over the bar.
Five minutes later Ferguson found space from a Novo
header only to head straight at Randelovic.
Time was running out if Rangers were to fashion any
kind of a lead to take to Belgrade in two weeks time,
although Ferguson might have done better in 88 minutes
when he burst through only to shoot into the
side-netting with Novo free and unmarked in the
middle.
Sixty seconds later that scarcely mattered however as,
out of the blue, Novo seized on a Lee McCulloch flick
to sweep the ball home.
Rangers had a precious 1-0 lead for the second leg,
and afterwards Walter Smith summarised:
"I'm pleased to have a 1-0 lead. A clean sheet is an
important factor. The game was always going to be
tight with few goalscoring opportunities. We worked
extremely hard and are in a winning position. Red
Star played as I expected."
Meanwhile Red Star Coach Milorad Kosanovic reflected:
"I thank Rangers for a tough game. The atmosphere was
excellent. It was unfortunate to concede a goal right
at the end, but the tie is not finished. I was not
surprised that Rangers opted for a defensive line-up
to protect from our counter-attacks. Rangers played
well, but with more self-confidence we could have won.
We lost concentration in the last minute, but have a
fifty-fifty chance of qualifying."
RANGERS McGregor; Hutton, Weir, Cuellar, Broadfoot;
McCulloch, Ferguson, Hemdani, Thomson, Beasley (Novo
64); Darcheville (Cousin 64)
UNUSED SUBS Carroll, Whittaker, Boyd, Adam, Murray
RED STAR BELGRADE Randelovic; Bronowicki, Ibrahima,
Tutoric, Andelkovic; Raskovic (Molina 69), Lukas,
Milijas, Castillo, Korahan; Dordevic (Milovanovic 82)
UNUSED SUBS Radivojevic, Pantic, Barcos, Bajalica,
Franklin
REFEREE Martin Hansson (Sweden)
Attendance 35,364