European Dreams

As poor as Rangers are is Scotland they seem to be as good in Europe. This was the first ever Scottish club side to win in Italy and it was all wrapped up in the first half.

Paul Le Guen's as yet unseen tactical genius came to the fore and goals from Charlie Adam, Kris Boyd and Nacho Novo had Rangers weel on their way to victoryl.

It didn't start very well and in the heavy rain Lionel Letizi did not look the part in goal.

But my favourite guy, Buffel, worked the ball well to reach Boyd who headed wide. Then Adam's shot was blocked.

The goal came after 27 minutes when Boyd's headed to Adam from a Steven Smith cross. Adam smacked it past Amelia, 1-0. But before you could say 'Up to your knees' it was 2-0 from the penalty spot. Novo was pulled down in the box and Boyd made no mistake.

The referee must have felt sorry for the Italians when three minutes later he awared a very soft penalty against Rodriguez on Cristiano Lucarelli. Lucarelli took the resulting penalty and put the ball past Letizi.

Amazingly Rangers scored again moments later. Boyd played another brilliant header to Novo who shot in from the edge of the area.

Rangers' confidence was still high in the second half and Adam had a left-foot shot just over.

Letizi was on the ball to get his hand to a header from Tomas Danilevicius keeping Rangers two-goals up.

The every brilliant Buffel was unlucky not to score in 64 minutes with a ten-yard shot that Amelia managed to block.

Livorno brought on substitute Stefano Morrone who tested Letizi again with a good shot that was pushed away for a corner.

The Italian side go desperate and threw everyone forward as the came came to an end. It worked when Lucarelli pulled a goal back with a shot in the last minute.

Rangers' substitute Sebo hit the crossbar in injury-time as the Gers looked for another goal.