Rangers 0-2 VfB Stuttgart: Germans Too Good For Gers

Rangers v VfB Stuttgart: line-ups & stats
Champions League: results/standings

Goals from Sebastian Rudy and Zdravko Kuzmanovic saw Stuttgart eliminate Rangers from the Champions League with a 2-0 victory at Ibrox.

Walter Smith had claimed that the lowest point of his second reign as Rangers boss was his side’s last home Champions League outing – a 4-1 capitulation at the hands of Champions League new boys Unirea Urziceni.

And despite a credible 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture in Romania, Rangers came into this tie bottom of Group G with two points knowing anything other than victory against Stuttgart would have seen the Scottish champions eliminated from Europe’s premier competition.

Despite their European woes, Rangers are still the team to beat domestically, and would have drawn confidence from their German counterpart’s torrid domestic campaign – Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to bottom club Hertha Berlin saw Markus Babbel’s side fall into the Bundesliga’s relegation zone.

With the German’s stumbling form in mind, Smith started with a three pronged attack – dropping Steven Naismith to the bench to accommodate Kyle Lafferty. But it almost backfired spectacularly as his Rangers side lined up remarkably narrow and the visiting Germans almost took immediate advantage when Arthur Boka skipped past Steven Whittaker down the Rangers right before laying in Cacau, who turned and drew a good save from Allan McGregor with a sharp snap shot.

Despite a tactical tweak from Smith, which saw Lee McCulloch move from the right of a back three to a holding central midfield role. Rangers continued to labour – particularly down their right and it came as little surprise when the Germans took the lead following a quick break down that channel.

Aleksandr Hleb exchanged a one-two with Cacau before squaring for Pavel Pogrebnyak and the Russian’s scuffed effort fell kindly into the path of Sebastian Rudy, who made no mistake from six yards out.

Rangers continued to toil and were almost two goals down moments later. Georg Niedermeier flicking a Zdravko Kuzmanovic free kick into the bottom corner only for it to be disallowed for offside.

With Rangers’ struggles down the left continuing, Cacau skipped past Whittaker before whistling an effort past the post with McGregor beaten.

Stuttgart were firmly in the ascendancy, so much so that it took until the half hour mark for the home side to register their first effort of note on the goal of Jens Lehmann. Kris Boyd – starting his first Champions League game - collecting a Lafferty header before firing just past the post.

Buoyed by that move and driven on by a partisan home crowd, Rangers began to get more of a foothold in the game. And Boyd should have drawn the sides level ten minutes before the interval, but, unmarked and with the goal at his mercy, the front man managed to get under a testing Kenny Miller cross to header over the bar.

Rangers finished the half with more of the ball but, lacking that incisive quality of their opponents, failed to carve out any more clear cut chances and went in at the break a goal down but far from out of the tie.       

But with Unirea a goal ahead against Sevilla, Rangers’ participation in European competition of any form was in the balance. And if they were to salvage any hope of qualification for either the Europa League or Champions League knockout stages, a second half salvo akin to the one in Stuttgart in September was required, but, similar to the first half, the Germans began with more intent.

With the Germans controlling large swathes of the game, Rangers were restricted to break aways – and it was from a Rangers quick break that Stuttgart doubled their advantage.

Matthieu Delpierre did brilliantly to steal the ball from Kenny Miller as the Scottish international bore down on Lehmann, before initiating a counter attack that saw Rudy cross for an unmarked Kuzmanovic to header Stuttgart into what turned out to be an unassailable lead on the hour mark.

Stuttgart continued to dominate and Rangers would have been in further arrears had it not been for a wonderful McGregor double save that denied Cacau and then Pogrebnyak.

Rangers rallied with the introduction of Nacho Novo for the ineffective Kenny Miller, but Stuttgart passed their way to the final whistle and began to exploit further gaps in the Gers defence - Pogrebnyak could have made it three following good work from Hleb, but his effort struck the post and flew wide from a tight angle.

With Unirea’s victory in Seville, this result – as far as Champions League qualification was concerned – would have been academic, but what will hurt Smith the most is the performance his side put in. It was so bad that they failed to muster a shot on target throughout the whole match.