Stuttgart 1 – 1 Rangers

Jerome Rothen's second half performance helped Rangers earn a deserved point

Rangers recovered from a poor first half performance to salvage a priceless away point against Stuttgart in the opening Champions League game of the season.

David Weir was ruled out with an ankle injury picked up against Motherwell, which meant that Lee McCulloch was moved back from midfield to partner Madjid Bougherra in central defence. Kevin Thomson, despite only playing 26 minutes of football so far this season, was drafted in to take up the position departed by McCulloch.

It was an extremely sluggish start from Rangers as Stuttgart dominated the first half and threatened to have the game wrapped up by the break. Cacau, who was a constant thorn in Rangers' side during the first period squandered a couple of chances, the best of which came inside the very first minute but luckily Allan McGregor was on hand to palm away his close-range effort. It was not long however, before the Brazilian-born forward pounced on a Sasa Papac slip to drive forward and square for Pogrebnyak who slid the ball past an exposed Allan McGregor to put the German side in front. As the Rangers midfield struggled to stamp any authority on the game, Stuttgart looked to add to their tally. Indeed, it would be Cacau again who found space behind a hesitant McCulloch but he could only drive in to the side netting from the angle.

Soon after, the Gers suffered another scare as Pogrbnyak smacked a shot off the underside of the crossbar which bounced to safety. But in a heart-stopping moment, the Russian striker had been flagged offside in any case.

Still, things did not look bright for the Glasgow side, but the opportunity to regroup in the dressing room at half time and a few words of encouragement from manager Walter Smith seemed to breathe life into a side bereft of any attacking guile.

Shortly after the break, Jerome Rothen found Sasa Papac with a crossed ball from the right but while making good contact with a header, he struggled to apply any direction and the ball flew well wide from 8 yards. This characterised a glimmer of hope for Rangers though, whose play was much crisper and fluent.

Kenny Miller, who played the lone striker role quite effectively, managed to shimmy his way through a few defenders and into the penalty box before hitting ground. It looked as though he might have been able to get a shot off earlier and it did appear there was slight contact with the Stuttgart defender but any penalty award would have been extremely harsh.

Stuttgart did send a few reminders that they were still very much a threat though and they sent a couple of shots off target, without troubling Allan McGregor.

Jerome Rothen again caused problems with one of his deliveries into the box, almost catching out Stuttgart goalkeeper Jens Lehmann at his near post but the German managed to palm the ball to safety.

It was second time unlucky for Lehmann though as Madjid Bougherra scored a wonderful goal to cap off a fine piece of play. The Algerian, who often likes to step out of defence picked the ball up on the halfway line. Spotting the opportunity to move forward, he linked up with Jerome Rothen before stealing the ball from the winger's toe and smashing the ball past Lehmann at his near post. It was a goal that any player would be proud of and Rangers were more than good value for the equaliser.

Steven Naismith was unlucky not to add a second for Rangers. A pacey counter attack saw Miller burst forward with the ball and slide the ball across to Naismith. Unfortunately his first touch was a little too heavy and although he managed to retain the ball after a challenge from a defender, Lehmann had managed to snuff out the opportunity. The keeper easily saved Naismith's weak shot and the danger was gone.

As the clock ticked down towards the final whistle, Steven Davis went close from the edge of the box as his left-footed shot had Lehmann beaten but a slight nick from a Stuttgart defender carried the ball on to the outside of the post and out of play. Stuttgart looked to press again but they could not fashion any chances - and it was Rangers who were obviously the happier as the referee blew the final whistle.

After an extremely disappointing start to the first half where they were never in the game, Rangers will feel unlucky not to have taken the full three points tonight given the chances they passed up, although Stuttgart can quite rightly point to their first half dominance where they could have effectively finished the match.

Midfield pair Kevin Thomson (perhaps understandably) and captain for the night Pedro Mendes struggled badly to get into the game. I was surprised to see Thomson included in the starting XI. Although Davie Weir was ruled out through injury, I would have kept Lee McCulloch in midfield and introduced young Danny Wilson to centre back. McCulloch's inexperience and hesitancy at centre back allowed the Stuttgart front men to run riot in the first half. Although he was improved in the second period, I think the right move would have been to slot Wilson in.

We keep hearing how promising Wilson is, and how highly he is regarded at Ibrox, so much so that interest from Tottenham Hostpur was fended off strongly. He's 18 now - other teams around the continent have no hesitation in including their youngsters at this level if they feel they're good enough. Yet this seems to be a major sticking point for the Rangers management.

Regardless, we got a point tonight, which any Rangers fan would have taken before kick off. In the end the second half  performance more than made up for that in the first. The 4-5-1 formation looked to be our downfall as the midfield struggled to apply any pressure on Stuttgart, combined with a lack of presence up front but this changed  after the break and Rangers started to look the better side as they used the ball far more effectively. As my previous article said, I don't think we have to fear German sides and their style too much - providing we take the game to them. Too often we let the opposing team dictate to us but we saw tonight what can happen when the whole team gets a firm grip on the game.

First point on the board - a great result. The next two games are at home to Sevilla and Unirea Urziceni (who played each other tonight with the Spaniards winning comfortably by 2-0), so let's make that first point count.

Man of the match: Steven Naismith was a constant source of problems for the Stuttgart defence, but an excellent second half performance from Jerome Rothen means he just edges it.