Rangers have left themselves with an anxious trip to Lithuania next week after last night’s 0-0 draw against FBK Kaunas in the first leg of their Champions League second qualifying round tie at Ibrox, a match that left Walter Smith’s men facing the ire of their home support.

Smith and his players will now travel to face a buoyant Kaunas in the second leg next Tuesday night, a game Rangers must win if they are to advance to the third and final qualifying round. One consolation for the Ibrox manager is that Carlos Cuellar, missing last night through injury, will almost certainly be restored to the heart of his defence.

It was in attack, however, that Rangers’ problems seemed most obvious. Kenny Miller and Jean-Claude Darcheville started the match, but even the arrivals of Nacho Novo, Kris Boyd and Andrius Velicka could not produce a goal.

“We started the game too slowly — we should have had more pace about us,” Smith said afterwards. “So we’ll have to improve on that. But all credit to Kaunas, they set their stall out and defended well, and on the break they always had an opportunity.

“We probably had our best spell before half-time, when we managed to impose ourselves more and enjoyed a few opportunities, and we might have done better then. In the second half, though, Kaunas defended well and they restricted us.”

Much was being made later of the fact that, last season, Rangers were held at home by such teams as Panathinaikos, Sporting Lisbon and Fiorentina, before successfully going abroad to finish off the ties. Smith, however, said that he was wary of drawing such comparisons this season.

“We feel as though we are capable of winning over there, but what happened last season is finished with,” the Ibrox manager said. “It will be an awkward game, though we can still be confident. But because we had success away from home last season, doesn’t mean it will be automatic this season.

“We lacked a bit of brightness about us, so hopefully we’ll play better. We also had players missing and it’s not easy replacing them. But again, give credit to Kaunas. We played similar to the way they played tonight in a lot of our games last season, and they made themselves very difficult to break down.”

One blot for Rangers on the night was the pre-match booing of Miller, an aspect that Smith wished to play down. “I thought he did OK,” he said.

José Couceiro, the Kaunas coach, was understandably delighted with the 0-0 result, though was also wary of reading too much into it.

“It was a good match but in the first half my team [lacked] experience,” he said. “After 75 minutes we were physically out, which was normal. We had some luck in the last 20 minutes.

“Rangers are still the favourites — even after this result. Last season they drew games at home, but then won away from home. So the second match will still be very difficult, I know that.

“The key of this [tie] is the intelligence of our team. It is possible that in the second leg it will all be decided in the last 20 minutes. In that case, the team with all the experience will still have the advantage. So while we have done well, it is still only half-time.”