Advocaat blasts his Rangers

Angry Rangers manager Dick Advocaat slated his experienced stars for beginning their second-leg qualifier with Maribor like it was a foregone conclusion.

Rangers were jolted by a first-half strike by Vanja Starcevic that resulted from a defensive clanger by Bert Konterman, before eventually winning the tie 3-1.

It was not until after the break that Rangers were able to add to their 3-0 first-leg advantage with an equaliser from Tore Andre Flo and a double from Claudio Caniggia.

Advocaat fumed: "After some words at half-time everybody realised what they had to do. In the first half not everybody took his responsibility defensively. If everybody takes his responsibility defensive-wise it is quite simple for everybody. That's what happened in the second half."

Substitute Neil McCann earned praise from his manager, as did 18-year-old full debutant Stephen Hughes, who performed well in midfield alongside Barry Ferguson.

Advocaat said: "I think Neil did quite well. He made a little bit of a difference. I was also pleased with Stephen Hughes. He was one of those who took the responsibility - and I can't say that about everybody.

"I was not concerned when they scored - I was more angry that they had scored a goal out of nothing." Maribor coach Ivo Susak congratulated Rangers and tipped them to beat Fenerbahce in the final qualifying round.

But he was less than pleased about newspaper reports this morning that had claimed his squad had gone on a tourist trip to Celtic Park and then a distillery on arrival in Glasgow.

Inter Bratislava overcame Slavia Mozyr of Belarus 1-0 in their Champions League second qualifying-round second-leg yesterday when Alias Lembakoali scored in the 73rd minute to give them a 2-0 aggregate score.

Bratislava will now face Norway's Rosenborg for the right to play in the Champions League.

Danish champions FC Copenhagen set up a mouth-watering tie against Lazio of Italy when they beat Georgian champions Torpedo Kutaisi 3-1 with three headed goals. Copenhagen clinched the tie 4-2 on aggregate and were well worth the victory, although it took them 43 minutes to open the scoring.

Romania's Steaua Bucharest moved confidently to the next stage after a 2-1 win at Sloga Jugomagnat. Steaua won the first leg 3-0 at home and go through 5-1 on aggregate to face Ukraine's Dynamo Kiev in next week's third and final qualifying round.