RANGERS took a big step towards booking their place in the Champions League after defeating Anorthosis Famagusta 2-1 in Cyprus last night. Goals from Nacho Novo and Fernando Ricksen mean the Scottish champions have a great chance of joining Europe’s elite clubs in the money-spinning group stages of the competition.

Anorthosis pulled a goal back through Nikolaus Frousos but Rangers will be confident of winning the tie at Ibrox after scoring two away goals.

Alex McLeish, the manager, claimed he was still weighing up whether to hand Julien Rodriguez, the new signing, his debut 24 hours before the match and, in the end, he opted to take the gamble. McLeish had swooped to sign the former Monaco captain just hours before the Champions League deadline and Rodriguez was drafted into defence along with Michael Ball. That meant Ricksen and Ian Murray were moved into midfield and Peter Lovenkrands and Alex Rae were dropped after the narrow win at Inverness.

Anorthosis quickly set about trying to show their ability by dominating the opening spell. Giorgi Kinkladze was looking lively early on and the Rangers defence were being kept busy in the opening minutes.

The Scottish champions had chances of their own to take the lead. Rodriguez punted the ball into the danger area and Marvin Andrews set up Nacho Novo for the shot but Antonis Georgallides, the goalkeeper, managed to push the effort wide.

Anorthosis should have taken the lead ten minutes before the break when Frousos outsmarted Andrews before unleashing a shot that looked certain to find the back of the net until Ronald Waterreus, the goalkeeper, punched the ball to safety.

Temuri Ketsbaia, the player-coach, who was last season’s top goalscorer for the club, then tried his luck with a thunderous long-range effort but he was well off target. The tie was proving to be bad-tempered and Ball, Ricksen, Andrews and Famagusta’s Georgios Xenidis were all booked in the first half.

Ketsbaia was not too far away with a long, low effort within two minutes of the restart but the former Newcastle and Dundee midfield player pulled the shot a fraction wide.

The breakthrough came after 65 minutes and, despite Anorthosis’ earlier possession, it was Rangers who took the lead. Dado Prso did well to escape his marker before squaring to Ricksen in front of goal and his ambitious overhead kick was blocked by the goalkeeper, but Novo reacted quickly to pounce on the rebound just inside the six-yard box.

The goal clearly boosted Rangers and they doubled their advantage after 71 minutes. Prso was the provider again and this time he played the ball through to Ricksen, who calmly slipped the ball under the body of the Anorthosis goalkeeper from 12 yards.

The home side were spurred into action and within a minute they had pulled a goal back. Rodriguez failed to control the ball properly and it fell kindly to Frousos, who fired past Waterreus.

ANORTHOSIS FAMAGUSTA (4-5-1): A Georgallides — S Poursaitides (sub: T Tsolakides, 74min), L Louka, G Xenidis, A Haxhi — K Tsitaishvili (sub: N Kampantais, 70), C Marangos (sub: K Konstantinou, 81), N Nicolaou. G Kinkladze, T Ketsbaia — N Frousos. Substitutes not used : M Kokkinos, M Markou, C Samaras, S Parmakis. Booked: Xenides, Haxki.

RANGERS (4-3-3): R Waterreus — J Pierre-Fanfan, J Rodriguez, M Andrews, M Ball — F Ricksen, B Ferguson, I Murray — T Buffel (sub: P Lovenrkrands, 58), N Novo (sub: C Burke, 80), D Prso (sub: S Thompson, 74). Substitutes not used: S Klos, R Malcolm, A Rae, R McCormack. Booked: Ball, Ricksen, Andrews.

Referee: F De Bleeckere (Belgium).

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