| The FF match report from the Champions League clash between Rangers and VFB Stuttgart at Ibrox Stadium. |
Rangers 0 Stuttgart 2 (Rudy 16, Kuzmanovic 58)
Attendance 41,468
Rangers crashed out of Europe tonight, going down 0-2 to Stuttgart at Ibrox in a game where the Scottish Champions' shortcomings at this level were all too starkly exposed.
Walter Smith made one change from Saturday with Kyle Lafferty replacing the injured Steven Naismith as the Ibrox Manager opted for a 4-4-2 formation, a decision that was soon exposed as being the wrong one as the Germans took control from the opening minute.
A massive travelling support backed the visitors, highlighting the failure of Rangers to fill The Stadium to capacity.
Cacau threatened as early as the sixth minute when his shot from the edge of the box following an Arthur Boka run was turned wide by Allan McGregor, then four minutes later the Brazilian's 25-yard snap-shot was held by the goalkeeper.
The opening goal duly arrived in sixteen minutes when Aleksandr Hleb split the right flank of the Light Blue defence wide open before crossing for the unmarked Sebastian Rudy to slot home.
Flares were lit amongst the Stuttgart fans as they celebrated - and it was all too obvious even this early that Rangers were in trouble.
Sixty seconds later Stuttgart again found the net when Zdravko Kuzmanovic netted with a thirty-yard free-kick only for a linesman's flag to signal offside.
Rangers had scarcely threatened in the opening half-hour, but did finally manage a shot on target in 32 minutes when Kris Boyd's shot on the turn from a Lafferty cross was held by goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.
Four minutes later Boyd missed a golden opportunity to equalise when he headed wildly over from a Kenny Miller cross. It was a clear example of exactly why Boyd is simply not good enough to play at this level.
The half ended with Stuttgart one goal to the good, but few amongst the Ibrox legions believed that the home side were good enough to come back - despite exactly that occurring on the Germans' two previous visits to Govan.
Any hopes of an Ibrox comeback disappeared without trace in 58 minutes when Miller was clean through on goal only to be dispossessed by Georg Niedermeier and in a lightning counter-attack Rudy's cross was headed home by Kuzmanovic.
Rangers were a shambles, looking likely to concede more goals with every attack - and on the hour McGregor made a superb double save from firstly Cacau then Pavel Pogrebnyak.
Nacho Novo replaced Miller seven minutes later, and with quarter-of-an-hour remaining John Fleck substituted for Kevin Thomson - but the die was cast.
Cacau outpaced David Weir in 77 minutes to set up Pogrebnyak whose shot struck the crossbar - then seven minutes later the Russian striker was through on goal only for McGregor to block his effort.
The final whistle signalled an end to a European campaign of despair and disappointment for the Light Blues with all three home fixtures lost for the first time and just two points accrued - and afterwards a crestfallen Walter Smith admitted:
"We've not been good enough. The home games all ended up in a similar fashion regardless of the systems we played. We've found it difficult to impose ourselves in the games and retain a decent level of defending at the same time."
Meanwhile in the other Group G fixture Unirea defeated Seville 1-0 in Bucharest to move to within two points of the Spaniards, who now need a draw at home to Rangers in the final game to win the section.
RANGERS McGregor; Whittaker, Weir, Wilson, Papac; Davis, McCulloch, Thomson (Fleck 75), Lafferty (Beasley 84); Miller (Novo 67), Boyd
UNUSED SUBS Alexander, Bougherra, Smith, Little
STUTTGART Lehmann; Osorio, Niedermeier, Delpierre, Boka; Rudy (Gebhart 89), Trasch, Hleb, Kuzmanovic (Hitzlsperger 74); Cacau (Schieber 81), Pogrebnyak
UNUSED SUBS Ulreich, Tasci, Marica, Hilbert
REFEREE Roberto Rosetti (Italy) |
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