Novo and Ricksen give Gers huge edge

Anorthosis Famagusta 1 Rangers 2

Goals from Nacho Novo and Fernando Ricksen mean the Scottish champions have a great chance of joining Europe’s elite 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 Micheal Ball. That meant Fernando Ricksen and Ian Murray were moved into midfield and Peter Lovenkrands and Alex Rae were dropped following Saturday’s narrow win at Inverness.

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.

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 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 and fire home.

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.

But the home side were suddenly 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 FAM: Georgallides, Poursaitides (Tsolakides 74), Haxhi, Louka, Xenidis, Maragos (Konstantinou 83), Frousos, Kinkladze, Ketsbaia, Tsitaishvili (Kampantais 70), Nicolaou.

RANGERS: Waterreus, Pierre-Fanfan, Andrews, Rodriguez, Ball, Ricksen, Ferguson, Murray, Buffel (Lovenkrands 58), Novo (Burke 79), Prso (Thompson 74).

Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium).