Rangers top group after narrow win

Rangers top group after narrow win

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Rangers will go into the draw for the last-32 of the UEFA Cup on Friday as winners of Group A after a 1-0 win over Partizan Belgrade at Ibrox.

Defender Alan Hutton’s first goal of the season after 54 minutes gave the home side all three points after an uninspired first half.

He headed a Nacho Novo free-kick past Partizan goalkeeper Nikolas Asprogenis for what was the only real highlight of a dire encounter.

Only some poor finishing from the visitors prevented a troubled night for Paul Le Guen’s side, who struggled to impose themselves on their rather ordinary opponents. The Ibrox club were looking to equal their own all-time Scottish record of 12 consecutive unbeaten European matches but the early moments offered little encouragement.

Partizan looked sharp enough and had a great chance to score after only seven minutes when a mistake by defender Brahim Hemdani allowed Nenad Mirosavljevic to go clear. The Partizan striker fed the ball wide to Nebojsa Marinkovic on the right and moved into the Light Blues’ penalty area for the return.

However, when the inch-perfect cross came back into the penalty area, Mirosavljevic messed up his header from close range in spectacular fashion.

Then three minutes before the interval Novo came close as he was played in by midfielder Thomas Buffel on the left, but the Spaniard took one touch too many and his left-footed drive from 16 yards was blocked by Asprogenis.

Rangers.....continued below

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forced a couple of corners in quick succession immediately after the interval but that proved to be something of a false dawn for the Ibrox fans as their side simply soon returned to lacklustre mode.

But in the 54th minute the Govan side took the lead from an unusual source. Sebo won a soft free-kick on the right when he was challenged by Marko Lomic.

When Novo swung the cross into the penalty area, Hutton stooped 16 yards out and headed the ball into the corner of the net for the first goal of the season.

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