Champions League/Rangers 1 Crvena Zvezda 0:Rangers seem to have no interest in making life easy for themselves in Europe this season but were rescued here last night by Nacho Novo's late goal. After labouring past the Montenegrins of FK Zeta in the second qualifying round, they produced another insipid display against Crvena Zvezda before the substitute's timely intervention.
At times it looked as if Rangers could have played long into the night without scoring against the team formerly known as Red Star Belgrade.
Kris Boyd provided the topic of pre-match conversation here; Walter Smith taking the bold step of dropping the club's top scorer of the last two seasons to the Rangers bench. He was replaced by Jean-Claude Darcheville as Smith's lone forward.
Crvena Zvezda's preparations for their trip to Glasgow had been turbulent. They sacked their manager, Bosko Djurovski, last Friday after struggling past Levadia Tallinn in the second qualifying round. Yet the visitors began sprightly in proving, as Smith had predicted, comfortable in possession and aggressive when defending. They were overly combative at times with the Crvena Zvezda captain, the former Portsmouth player Ognen Koroman, attempting to rile Rangers with a series of late tackles and gestures to the crowd.
Crvena Zvezda were more content than Rangers with an opening half which failed to produce a single shot on target for either team. The Serbian champions came closest to opening the scoring, on 39 minutes, with a dipping, 35-yard volley from Filip Dordevic which dropped only inches over the crossbar.
Rangers started the second period with renewed vigour, doubtless aware of the significance of the much-needed riches group stage qualification would bring. Much of their promising build-up play, though, was ruined by a lack of potency in attack as Darcheville cut an isolated figure.
Patience is not a virtue normally associated with followers of either half of the Old Firm but the Ibrox crowd remained optimistic. Boyd remained among the substitutes as Smith introduced Novo and Daniel Cousin to pep up his forward line. Cousin blasted a 25-yard effort narrowly over with the visiting defence in no mood to let their opponents get closer. They succeeded until the 89th minute.
RANGERS:McGregor, Hutton, Cuellar, Weir, Broadfoot, McCulloch, Ferguson, Hemdani, Thomson Beasley, Darcheville. Subs: Carroll, Boyd, Novo, Adam, Murray, Whittaker, Cousin
RED STAR BELGRADE:Randjelovic, Bronowicki, Gueye, Tutoric, Andjelkovic, Koroman, Castillo, Lucas Milijas, Raskovic, Dordevic. Subs: Radivojevic,Pantic, Barcos,Bajalica, Molina, Salas, Milovanovic
Referee: Martin Hansson .