Rangers found out what it is like to play against the elite of European football in Valencia last night. Their Dutch coach, Dick Advocaat, had feared that their Spanish opponents might be able to recover their form as they moved on to the Champions League stage. That is exactly what happened in the second half of this opening Group F game.

The Spanish side scored in 56 minutes when the hapless Craig Moore put the ball over his own goal line - and then Kily Gonzalez added their second in the seventy-third minute and, no matter what alterations Adovcaat made to his side, there was no way back for the Scottish champions.

Indeed, the Spaniards might have won more easily if they had taken the chances they were able to carve out in a second half that saw Rangers plunge to their worst defensive display of the season.

They simply could not cope with the Spanish assaults and the memories of the victory over Parma soon evaporated in the sultry heat of the Spanish night.

The Valencia team, in disarray after three defeats in a row at the start of their own league season, grew more and more confident as the game wore on and they began to realise that they had victory securely in their grasp.

They had worried about this game beforehand and then, after a first half when they pushed and probed and forced Rangers into mistakes, they seemed to find the measure of the Ibrox team and the goals and the other chances they had in that second half only confirmed that.

This was a display from Rangers that suggested that the ambitions of their fans will have to be tempered with a dose of reality.

Advocaat has always been quick to dampen down suggestions that he has a team ready to conquer Europe. Now, perhaps, the fans will listen to him.

Of course, Rangers are not committed to Champions League obscurity purely because of this opening result.

They have their home game against the Spaniards to come and they will face Bayern Munich next week at Ibrox.

However, they cannot afford to slip at home. That would be fatal.

This night was a sobering experience for too many Rangers players who were found wanting against a team who had gone

into the match low on confidence but ended with a self-belief that had not seemed possible at the weekend.

The Spanish side, under pressure after such a bad start in their own league, began the game as if determined to redeem themselves in front of their own support.

Three league defeats in succession had tested the patience of the local support, but soon they saw their team produce the kind of football that Advocaat, had always claimed they were capable of showing.

There was a spell early in the first half when it seemed that

the Scottish champions would crumble under the attacks that Valenica hurled in against them.

As early as the third minute, the nerves that afffected the Ibrox team were displayed when Craig Moore was yellow carded for a challenge on Claudio Lopez and then, in a six-minute spell, Rangers were fortunate to survive a severe spell of attacking play from Valencia.

That began after 12 minutes when Lorenzo Amoruso misjudged a through ball and allowed the danger man, Lopez, to get clear of him down the right-hand side of the penalty box. Before he could get in a tackle, the striker back-heeled the ball cleverly and both the Rangers captain and his goalkeeper, Lionel Charbonnier, were caught out. Luckily, Tony Vidmar stepped in to sweep the ball to safety.

A minute after that, Mendieta shot after Sanchez gave him a sight of goal and Charbonnier was relieved to see the ball go wide.

The Frenchman was in action within another minute, saving a header from Lopez as his defence was being over-run in front of him.

In 18 minutes, it was Charbonnier once more with a stop from Gonzalez, and then Angloma

followed that by heading the

ball over the bar as Valencia chased the goal they wanted so desperately.

It took Rangers a long time to find their way into the game and, when they did so, the chance fell to Vidmar after Michael Mols flicked a ball from Giovanni van Bronckhorst to the Australian, whose shot flew low across the face of the goal.

In 35 minutes, Charbonnier held a ball that had broken from Sergio Porrini after a cross from Mendieta threatened the Rangers goal yet again.

However, before half time the Ibrox team had gained a little more composure and twice they found openings, once when a van Bronckhorst free kick reached Gabriele Amato only for the Argentinian to guide the ball wide of the post; then when Canizares held a long-range drive from Amoruso.

Two minutes before half-time Barry Ferguson was cautioned for a challenge on Gerard and the Rangers players left the field at the break fortunate to be still level.

At the start of the second half, Jorg Albertz appeared in place of Neil McCann and only three

minutes later Charbonnier was cautioned for time wasting by the Slovakian referee.

Just when it seemed that Rangers might have weathered the storm, the Spaniards struck with a swift attack that found Amoruso caught on the wrong side of Sanchez when the through-ball came forward. The Valencia striker cut the ball across goal and, as Charbonnier scrambled it away, the incoming Moore could not get out of he way and ran it over his own line.

That serious blow came in 56 minutes, and the disorganised Ibrox defence were only being punished for a slackness they had displayed on too many occasions during the match.

A minute afterwards, Sanchez created an opening for Lopez that the striker wasted as he side-footed the pass wide. Then, in 61 minutes, Lopez did have the ball in the net again, but Rangers escaped when offside was given.

Now the Valencia support were behind their team, urging them on and forgiving them for the dismal run of results in the league. In 70 minutes, Lopez, who had been particularly troublesome to the Rangers defence, went off and Ilie replaced him.

Rangers also made an alteration almost immediately fwhen Andrei Kanchelskis took over from Porrini as Advocaat made a bid to save the match.

However, before the Russian could settle in, Valencia scored their second goal when Gonzalez fired a vicious shot beyond Charbonnier in 73 minutes. after some superb inter-passing that left the Rangers defence floundering.

Valencia - Canizares, Angloma, Bjorklund, Pellegrino, Carboni, Mendieta, Gerard, Albelda, Kily Gonzalez, W Sanchez, Lopez. Substitutes - Palop, Camarasa, Djukic, Oscar, Angulo, Ilie, Serban.

Rangers - Charbonnier, Porrini, Moore, Amoruso, Vidmar, Reyna, Ferguson, Van Bronckhorst, Amato, Mols, McCann. Substitutes - Niemi, Numan, Kanchelskis, Albertz, Hendry, Adamczuk, Johansson.

Referee - Michel Lubos (Slovakia).

Valencia .......... 2 Rangers ...........0 Ken Gallacher in Spain