Rangers 2 Famagusta 0: Rangers ensured there will be Scottish participation in the group stages of this year's Champions League and in the process ending their own two-year absence from the competition by seeing off a resolute Anorthosis Famagusta side at Ibrox last night.
Goals on either side of half-time from Thomas Buffel and Dado Prso were enough for Alex McLeish's men, who did enough to progress despite a less than convincing start to the game.
On the eve of this second-leg tie, McLeish had spoken of the prestige to be gained both personally and for his club by a sustained Champions League run, but the Rangers players failed to begin the match in a manner which befitted their manager's comments.
The visitors' player-manager Temuri Ketsbaia watched a ferocious 30-yard drive come back off Ronald Waterreus's left post after 13 minutes and just seconds later Nikos Frousos should have done better from the edge of the penalty area after robbing Rangers captain Barry Ferguson of the ball.
Buffel was pushing forward at every opportunity to assist the forward partnership of Nacho Novo and Prso, but the home side were unable to create any clear-cut early chances despite the Belgian's succinct promptings.
Ketsbaia, the temperamental former Newcastle and Wolves man, was roundly booed every time he touched the ball after pre-match comments which cast doubt over the gulf in class between relatively free-spending Rangers and their Cypriot opponents.
The 37-year-old Georgian simply seemed to revel in the atmosphere, though, and was the star player of the game's opening exchanges as Anorthosis littered the goal with long-range efforts.
Indeed, it took 28 minutes for Prso to fire the first shot on Antonis Georgallides' goal, the Croatian angling his 20-yard drive only inches wide. It was harsh luck on the visitors, then, when Buffel latched onto a cute flick from Novo to lob the goalkeeper and hand Rangers a crucial 3-1 aggregate lead, seven minutes before the interval.
Novo came within inches of doubling the hosts' advantage in the dying seconds of the first half, although a second goal would have been an injustice to Anorthosis.
But whether it was the reported £35,000 per-man bonus, or something more subtle, which was pressed home to Rangers by their manager at half-time, it certainly worked.
They began the second period with the renewed verve which brought victory at the weekend, and Prso slotted home from 15 yards after 57 minutes after holding off the lame challenge of Georgios Xenidis for his fourth goal of an already impressive season.
RANGERS: Waterreus, Ricksen, Pierre-Fanfan, Rodriguez, Ball, Ferguson, Murray, Lovenkrands, Buffel (McCormack 74), Novo, Prso (Thompson 66). Subs not used: Klos, Andrews, Alex Rae, Malcolm, Khizanishvili. Booked: Pierre-Fanfan, McCormack. Goals: Buffel 39, Prso 58.
ANORTHOSIS FAMAGUSTA: Georgallides, Poursaitides, Katsabakis, Louka, Xenidis, Haber, Maragos (Konstantinou 52), Nikolaou, Ketsbaia (Samaras 64), Tsitaishvili (Tsolakides 72), Frousos. Subs not used: Nagy, Kampantais, Markou, Parmakis. Booked: Poursaitides.
Referee: Valentin Ivanov (Russia).
