It was the "Late Late Show" at Ibrox tonight as Rangers made desperately
hard work of their European Champions Cup 2nd Round Qualifying tie with FDK
Kaunas of Lithuania, the final scoreline of 4-1 being a misrepresentation of
a game that was a Herculean struggle for the Light Blues.
Pre-match talk had been of the 3rd Round tie with Danish champions
Herefolge, overlooking the fact that there was a second round tie to be won.
Rangersı manager Dick Advocaat had warned that Kaunas were a physical side,
and so it proved with the Lithuanians taking no prisoners from the first
whistle.
Rangers team selection as something of a surprise for the 46,974 spectators
with the inclusion of Claudio Reyna fresh from a World Cup Qualifying tie
for the United States in Costa Rica not to mention Jonatan Johansson and Rod
Wallace who had both been struggling with injuries.
An early gaol in such a tie is always priceless and Allan Johnston did the
needful in 14 minutes with his first competitive goal for the club, slotting
the ball home after a blocked Albertz drive had been laid into his path by
Johansson.
Rangers went after a quick second and it should have arrived within two
minutes with Johnstonıs right foot shot being parried by Kaunas goalkeeper
Marius Poskus, Rod Wallace heading the rebound wide from right in front of
goal.
That miss was to prove expensive in 26 minutes when a Scott Wilson error
allowed Audrius Zuta to rifle the ball home, the loss of an away goal a blow
to many who had turned up in anticipation of a hatful of goals.
Rangers strove to regain the initiative, a Fernando Ricksen shot from
Johnston's cross being blocked by Darius Regelskis and Reynaıs effort from
the Dutch fullbackıs cutback being saved saved by Poskus.
The first yellow card of the night duly arrived in 33 minutes when Vadim
Petrenko was booked for a foul on Jorg Albertz - the German fortunate that
his retaliatory reaction was ignored by Maltese referee Emanuel Zammit.
Rangers had a strong penalty appeal for handball against Tomas Kancelskis
waived aside before Kaunas were reduced to ten men in 39 minutes when
Petrenko was shown his second yellow card for yet another foul on Albertz
and thus for the third consecutive year a visiting side to Ibrox in a
European Qualifying Round tie had been reduced to ten men before the first
half was out, following the example of PAOK and Parma.
Nevertheless the half finished in frustration for the home side with both
Barry Ferguson and Scott Wilson booked for fouls on Zuta and Ksanavicius
respectively.
Dick Advocaat has never been slow to act in such circumstances and this game
was no exception, with two half time substitutions in the shape of Neil
McCann and Billy Dodds replacing the ineffective Scott Wilson and Jonatan
Johansson respectively, but the main talking point of the early stages of
the second half was an amazing incident in 51 minutes when Regelskis was
stretchered off after blocking an Albertz drive only to be physically
removed from the stretcher and pushed back onto the pitch by his coach
Senderas Desovilious who removed from his path a stretcher bearer in the
process.
With an hour gone Rangers were struggling desperately to secure any kind of
a lead to take to Lithuanian next week with the Kaunas defence rock-solid
but in 62 minutes the Ibrox men were offered a lifeline out of the blue when
a Reyna cross saw Poskus make his one mistake of the night, mishandling the
ball then pulling down Craig Moore in an effort to retrieve the situation.
Jorg Albertz duly converted the penalty, burying the nightmare of his
penalty misses of last season and within two minutes Rangers were facing
just nine men when Neruss Barasa was red carded on the word of assistant
referee Gaetano Degabriele - a decision which mystified almost everyone in
the stadium.
Kaunus thus had the dubious distinction of being the first European side to
be reduced to nine men at Ibrox Ankaragucu in 1973.
Advocaat went from broke when he substituted Kenny Miller for Tony Vidmar in
70 minutes as Rangers pounded the Lithuanian defence, Poskus defying Reyna
and Dodds in quick succession before being yellow carded for time wasting in
76 minutes.
The minutes were ticking away as Rangers launched wave after wave of attacks
against a heroic defence, but the Light Blues were facing a desperately
perilous journey to the Baltic state next week with a precarious 2-1 lead
before being thrown a lifeline with the addition of six extra minutes.
The glory of last years Champions League campaign had seemed a million miles
way as the clock clicked to 90 minutes when Billy Dodds repaid his entire
transfer fee with a priceless goal 26 seconds into in jury time when he
wheeled on an Albertz pass to send a rocket shot into the roof of the net
and for good measure added a fourth - again from an Albertz pass - with a
low shot into the corner of the net.
Rangers manager Dick Advocaat declared that he was very pleased with the
result but described the performance as very poor. His opinion was that
Rangers were not ready for such a game, the team were simply not sharp
enough. He had always expected Kaunas to be physical and also that they
would tire towards the end. Asked if the 2-1 scoreline at 90 minutes would
have been enough he replied that at 94 minutes the score was 4-1.
Drawing comparison with the tie with Shelbourne two years ago he had no
doubts that the 4-1 lead would be enough for the trip to Lithuania, but
promised changes in next weeks team.
Asked about a report in an Italian newspaper today that Rangers were on the
verge of signing Ronaldo he confirmed that this was the case adding that
both Batistuta and Zidane would also be joining the club.
One presumes that the Rangers manager was humouring the press.
In a quite remarkable interview the Kaunas coach Senderas Desovilious
described the mood of the team as good stressing that it showed that they
can hold their own in the highest company - he was unhappy with the red
cards - the first was undeserved the second he claimed to be unaware of what
had happened.
Asked about the six minutes injury time he shrugged his shoulders ³we are
younger brothers². Looking ahead to the second leg ³football is football -
anything can happen² he stated before somewhat surprisingly offered the
opinion that he would have been happy had the game finished at 3-1.
Desovilious confessed that he had been spoken to informally by the police at
the end of the game regarding his alleged assault on one of the unfortunate
stretcher bearers "There was incident with stretcher bearers. We are new
in game and will make our own conclusions and ensure it does not happen
again. The referee showed his incompetence by not objecting to my throwing
my player physically off the stretcher onto the pitch. Everything is
history now."
Thus Rangers have a healthy 4-1 lead for their first ever trip to Lithuania
in seven days time, but it sure had been a long night.
RANGERS:- Klos, Ricksen, Moore, Wilson (McCann 45), Vidmar (Miller 70),
Ferguson, Johnston, Reyna, Johansson (Dodds 45), Wallace, Albertz. SUBS NOT
USED - Kanchelskis, Brown, Porrini, Ritchie.
