Attendance 39,000
Rangers opened their Champions League campaign with a remarkable 1-1 draw with Stuttgart in Germany tonight in what was truly a game of two halves - the Germans being so far ahead at the interval that the game should have been out of sight, yet by the final whistle the Scottish Champions might have won.
The home side almost made a dream start in 35 seconds when Cacau´s shot from a Hilbert cross was beaten away by McGregor.
Every German attack carried danger - Hitzleberger´s sixteenth-minute corner being missed by the ´Gers ´keeper, the loose ball falling to Cacau whose shot on the turn was cleared off the line by Whittaker.
Sixty seconds later the opening goal arrived when Papac´s error allowed Cacau free on the right, his low cross being slotted home by Pogrebnyak.
Cacau was a constant danger - shooting into the side-net from a Hleb pass in 37 minutes.
Somehow Rangers survived to the interval only one goal in arrears - and indeed might have levelled two minutes after the restart when Rothen´s cross found Papac who somehow headed wide.
At the other end Papac was more effective when he cleared Tasci´s effort off the line from a Hitzleberger corner on the hour.
Rothen almost caught Rothen out three minutes later when his cross-cum-shot was bundled clear by the ´keeper at his near post.
The scores were levelled in 76 minutes when Bougherra played a one-two with the outstanding Rothen before blasting the ball home.
Seven minutes later remarkably the visitors might have taken the lead when Miller´s break released Naismith whose shot was blocked by Lehmann.
Davis came even closer in 88 minutes when his low twenty-yard left-foot shot from a Rothen pass hit the post.
Rangers nevertheless had achieved a meritorious draw.
STUTTGART Lehmann; Trasch, Taschi, Delpierre, Boka; Hilbert, Hitzelberger, Khedira, Hleb (Gebhardt 66); Cacau (Schieber 87), Pogrebnyak
UNUSED SUBS Marica, Ukreich, Boulahrouz, Celozzi. Kuzmanovic
RANGERS McGregor; Whittaker, McCulloch, Bougherra, Papac; Rothen, Davis, Thomson, Mendes, Naismith; Miller (Novo 90)
UNUSED SUBS Boyd, Alexander Beasley, Smith, Fleck, Little
REFEREE Massimo Busacca (Switzerland)