start in Poland tonight with a resounding 5-0 win over
Amica Wronki - a margin of victory that surely
exceeded even Manager Alex McLeish's wildest dreams.
The result leaves the Ibrox men in pole position in
the group, the other tie between Auxerre and Graz
having ended goalless.
There were just 3,100 spectators in the tiny Amica
Stadion, surely one of the most remote venues that
Rangers have played in European competition.
There were two changes in the visitors' line-up from
Motherwell with Peter Lovenkrands and Shota Arveladze
replacing Nacho Novo and Steven Thompson against a
side currently lying third in the Polish League, five
points behind Wislaw Krakow.
Michael Ball was a surprise inclusion on the
substitutes' bench.
Rangers wore all-blue, but it was Amica who were first
to threaten when Mateusz Bartczak shot wide from a
Pawel Kryszalowicz cross inside two minutes.
Six Minutes later Jacek Dembinski also shot wide -
this time from a Karol Gregorek head-flick as the home
side made the early running.
Rangers soon settled however - and struck in sixteen
minutes when Arveladze's mazy run carried him into the
danger area, the ball breaking from Dado Prso into the
path of Lovenkrands who found the net with a low
eighteen-yard drive.
The goal took the sting out of Wronki, who were
restricted to long-range shooting.
Stefan Klos was finally called into action in 37
minutes, holding Bartczak's header from a Dembinski
cross.
Prso had a goal disallowed seven minutes after the
interval when he was ruled offside as he headed home a
Gregory Vignal cross, then two minutes later the
Croatian was inches wide from Fernando Ricksen's
cross.
Novo replaced Lovenkrands in 55 minutes, and within
120 seconds the little Spaniard made it 2-0 when he
rifled home a Prso backheel from a Vignal cross.
It was a fine goal, although Amica almost reduced the
deficit in 65 minutes when Dembinski hit the underside
of the bar from a Bartczak corner that was headed on
by Kryszalowicz.
Rangers remained in control however, with Ricksen
playing superbly in midfield. The Dutchman tested home
goalkeeper Arkadiusz Malarz with a twenty-yard
free-kick that was fisted away, but only delayed the
inevitable - Ricksen netting with a low drive in 69
minutes from a Prso lay-off.
It was now a rout - and within three minutes it was
4-0 via a penalty awarded for Jaroslaw Bieniuk's foul
on Arveladze. Shota himself took the kick, and for
once made it count, even via the underside of the bar.
Rangers now looked like scoring with every attack -
both Arveladze and Novo coming close in lightning
breaks.
Hamed Namouchi replaced Arveladze in 78 minutes, but
the final goal fell to another substitute - Steven
Thompson who headed home a Chris Burke cross in 89
minutes.
A delighted McLeish afterwards summed up:
"I'm delighted. We wanted to win, and made a good
start. The second goal was the killer. Amica gave us a
scare in the first twenty minutes."
Amica Wronki Malarz, Bieniuk, Dudka, Kucharski
(Sobocinski 45), Skrzypek, Stasiak, Dembinski,
Gregorek (Kikut 58), Kryszalowicz, Bartczak, Marcin
Burkhardt (Kowalczyk 66).
Subs Not Used: Mielcarz, Dziewicki, Wojtkowiak, Filip
Burkhardt.
Rangers Klos, Khizanishvili, Andrews, Boumsong,
Vignal, Burke, Ricksen, Malcolm, Lovenkrands (Novo
55), Arveladze (Namouchi 78), Prso (Thompson 70),
Burke.
Subs Not Used: Graeme Smith, Hughes, Ball, McLean.
Referee Rodriguez Santiago (Spain)
Attendance 3,100