Famagusta - 1 Rangers - 2: Rangers took a massive step towards booking their place in the Champions League after defeating Anorthosis Famagusta in Cyprus.
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.
Manager Alex McLeish claimed he was still weighing up whether to hand new signing Julien Rodriguez his debut 24 hours before the game 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.
Anorthosis disposed of Turkish outfit Trabzonspor in the previous round and they 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.
Player-coach Temuri Ketsbaia - last season's top goal scorer for the club - 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 Xenides were all booked in the first half.
The breakthrough came after 65 minutes when Dado Prso escaped 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 and fire home from just inside the six-yard box.
Rangers doubled their advantage after 71 minutes. Prso was the provider again and this time he played the ball to Ricksen, who calmly slipped the ball under the body of the Anorthosis goalkeeper from 12 yards.
The home side were suddenly spurred into action and within a minute they had pulled a goal back through Frousos.
FAMAGUSTA: Georgallides, Poursaitides (Tsolakides 74), Haxhi, Louka, Xenidis, Maragos (Konstantinou 83), Frousos, Kinkladze, Ketsbaia, Tsitaishvili (Kampantais 70), Nicolaou. Subs Not Used: Kokkinos, Markou, Samaras, Parmakis. Booked: Xenidis, Haxhi. Goals: Frousos 72.
RANGERS: Waterreus, Pierre-Fanfan, Andrews, Rodriguez, Ball, Ricksen, Ferguson, Murray, Buffel (Lovenkrands 58), Novo (Burke 79), Prso (Thompson 74). Subs Not Used: Klos, Malcolm, A Rae, McCormack. Booked: Ball, Ricksen, Andrews. Goals: Novo 64, Ricksen 71.
Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium).
