Belarusian champions FC BATE Borisov pulled off the biggest shock of the evening as they came from behind for a 2-1 win at 1983 UEFA Cup winners Anderlecht in their Champions League second qualifying round first-leg match on Wednesday
The Belgian side, who had defender Marcin Wasilewski sent off, took the lead through Guillaume Gillet but left themselves a mountain to climb in next week’s return leg after a Sergey Krivets penalty and Pavel Nehaicik turned the match.
Elsewhere, Danish champions Aalborg won while Rangers were held to a 0-0 home draw by FBK Kaunas.
Aalborg enjoyed a 5-0 home rout of Bosnian side Modrica while last season’s UEFA cup finalists Rangers now face a tricky trip to Lithuania after missing a hatful of chances to break down stubborn Kaunas at Ibrox.
The only positive for the Scottish side was the lack of an away goal for the Lithuanian champions.
Kaunas had started the match brightly with Brazilian Rafael Ledesma shooting over the bar in the eighth minute from 30m out.
The home side looked subdued at this point and it was Kenny Miller who had their first real chance of the half in the 20th minute.
The striker, in his first match of his second Rangers spell, chested a Charlie Adam cross and then lifted it over the advancing Kello, but his shot was cleared off the line for a corner.
Ledesma had the first shot on target for the Lithuanians in the 34th minute but it was easily saved by Rangers keeper Allan McGregor.
Jean-Claude Darcheville should have opened the scoring in the 41st minute when a perfectly weighted ball from Miller played him in with only the keeper to beat. The striker rounded Kello but his weak shot was cleared off the line by former Hearts defender Tomas Kancelskis.
Rangers finished the half brightly and Miller was involved again when he headed a cross ball into the path of Adam whose shot was well wide.
Spanish forward Nacho Novo replaced veteran Christian Dailly at half-time and this introduced some urgency to the Rangers attack.
Good link-up play between Novo and Miller saw the Scotland striker float a cross into the box with but Darcheville and Lee McCulloch couldn’t connect.
The home side dominated possession at this stage and Kello was quick to react to punch out an Adam corner, which looked to be swerving in.
After initially facing a chorus of jeers from a small minority of Rangers fans Miller, who had a spell with arch-rivals Celtic, was given a standing ovation for his display when he was replaced by Andrius Velicka after 73 minutes.
Kaunas offered little in the second-half but Rangers could not break the deadlock and now travel to Lithuania on Tuesday for the return leg all square.
Meanwhile, Luis Aragones, who guided Spain to the European championship last month, got off to a winning start with Fenerbahce as former Brazil left-back Roberto Carlos and Selcuk Sahin gave the Turkish side a 2-0 home win over Hungary’s MTK Budapest.
Panathinaikos are also set to reach the third and final qualifying round after a 3-0 home defeat of Georgian rivals Dinamo Tbilisi.
A first-half goal by Austrian midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz sent Panathinaikos on their way and Dimitris Salpingidis scored the other two to seal their victory.
Cypriots Anorthosis Famagusta also delighted their fans with a 3-0 home drubbing of Rapid Vienna thanks to a goal by Giannis Skopelitis and two from Polish striker Lukasz Sosin.
Aviram Barochian scored twice as Beitar Jerusalem fought back from a goal down to beat Wisla Krakow 2-1 in front of their vociferous fans while IFK Gothenburg were held to a 1-1 home draw by Basel.
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