rangers.................1 Strasbourg.................2

(Aggregate: 2-4)

RANGERS crashed out of Europe last night - for the second time this season - as they fell to back-to-back defeats from Racing Club Strasbourg in the first round proper of the UEFA Cup.

Earlier, the Scottish champions had been removed from the European Champions Cup by IFK Gothenburg and then were allowed to play in the secondary tournament.

It did them no good. In fact, it simply added to their embarrassment.

Last night was one of those nights that Rangers and their fans will want to forget. Strasbourg are third bottom of the French first division and yet, despite Rangers taking the early lead that any team in Europe desires, and a lead that placed them in a commanding position in the tie, they could not salvage anything from a night of disaster. Their opponents also had been reduced to 10 men for the last 32 minutes.

Rangers were not even able to match the Frenchmen in front of their own 40,145 fans. They were not able to put together a coherent team performance to match a team who are facing, at the moment, a relegation struggle in their own country.

They were not able, apart from the goal they scored after 11 minutes, to inspire or sustain their own home support. Indeed, such is the European blight that appears to surround the club that the fans seemed to accept the inevitability of the defensive lapse that allowed Strasbourg the equaliser nine minutes before half-time.

Then, when the death knell sounded for Rangers' European ambitions four minutes into the second half, there was, once more, almost an acceptance that their team, no matter how many stars it may possess on paper, was not good enough to play with the big boys of Europe, or even with the lesser lights.

Rangers have not pushed forward injuries as any excuse for their indifferent start to the season. However, it must be said that the absence of some of the players, and the intermittent appearance of others, has affected them.

Last night, though, they had a side on the field that should have been capable of defeating the men from France.

It did not happen.

Brian Laudrup did play, although he eventually went off in 65 minutes. Paul Gascoigne played throughout the 90 minutes but sat in a deep midfield role and did not make any of the spirited runs that can destroy the opposition and ignite his team-mates and excite the support.

His contribution did nothing to help the cause, and around him too many others fell into the lethargy that seemed to encompass the performance of the England international. It was a night when Rangers simply did not perform, an action replay of too many nights in Europe, but one that was worse than the others because the opposition was not as powerful as it has been in the Champions League in recent times.

Yet, when the game began, it had seemed as if it would move Rangers' way, as if, at last, the breaks for which they have been looking, the breaks they have needed so desperately, had arrived. In 11 minutes, Laudrup pushed a ball forward and Rino Gattuso moved on to the pass, gathered the ball, stepped confidently into the penalty box and then scored with a low shot and Rangers, on the night and on aggregate, were in front.

Somehow, though, they began to lose their way. Somehow, Racing Club were not intimidated by the noise of the crowd, nor by the reputations of the players they were facing.

Instead, they stuck to their task, knowing they were behind, but believing that things could change.

Nine minutes before half-time, that belief was justified and once again it was a blunder in the Ibrox defence that gave them the opening, and which gave Strasbourg their equalising goal.

By now David Zitelli had taken over from Raphael Miceli, who had limped off in 18 minutes. Zitelli crossed from the left, Stale Stensaas made a hash of a clearance, and there was the French captain, Gerald Baticle, fastening on to the ball and then sending a shot beyond Andy Goram and into the net.

It was Baticle who had scored the two penalties against Rangers in the first leg, and last night he added that third lethal blow.

Then, four minutes after half-time, it was over. This time it was Zitelli who swept in, on to a pass from Stephane Collet, to score and now Rangers were looking to get three goals to win the tie and that was a task that was always going to be beyond them.

In 58 minutes, Kinet was sent off, but while that allowed Rangers some superiority on the ball, it did not allow them enough to make any real impression on the French, who remained comfortable and who remained essentially in command of the tie.

Erik Bo Andersen took over from Laudrup, Charlie Miller came on for Joachim Bjorklund, and then Jonatan Johansson replaced Gordon Durie - but all to no avail.

Rangers were beaten. Rangers were out of Europe. And the boos rained down on the players as they left the field.

RANGERS - Goram, Cleland, Stensaas, Porini, Bjorklund, McCall, Gascoigne, Gattuso, Durie, Negri, Laudrup. Substitutes - Snelders, Miller, Andersen, Petric, Johansson, B Ferguson, Graham.

Strasbourg - Vencel, Raschke, Suchoparek, Okpara, Collet, Baticle, Miceli, Conteh, M'Ghoghi, Dacourt, Kinet. Substitutes - Roth, Zitelli, Klein, Keller, Avril, Meiriche,

Referee - Fritz Stuchlik, (Austria).