Glasgow Rangers Champions League hopes are at best 50-50 after a very unimpressive 0-0 draw at home to Lithuanian side FBK Kaunas in their Champions League qualifying second-round, first-leg tie. The difference in fitness really showed in this game as Rangers struggled with match fitness, as they only recently returned for pre-season while the sharper Kaunas have played 15 league games already.
Yes Rangers were missing captain Barry Ferguson and last season’s top player Carlos Cuellar from the line-up but there should have been enough quality in the Rangers line-up to win the home leg.
Rangers face a very tricky return leg in Lithuania next Tuesday to save their European campaign. With no parachute into the Uefa Cup, failure to progress from this two-legged tie into the Champions League third qualifying round would be unthinkable for Rangers and would be all the more disappointing after last season Uefa Cup run took them to the final in Manchester.
The other big shock was in Belgium where Belarus champions BATE Borisov came from behind for a 2-1 win at 1983 UEFA Cup winners Anderlecht.