Rangers' run halted by Jardel

Late goals from Andrei Kanchelskis and Giovanni van Bronkhorst were not enough to maintain Rangers' unfettered progress in the Champions' League last night. The impressive Mario Jardel's scorching volley capped a second-half onslaught by Galatasaray that took the side from Istanbul to the top of Group D, with the return fixture at Ibrox their next game in three weeks' time.

Late goals from Andrei Kanchelskis and Giovanni van Bronkhorst were not enough to maintain Rangers' unfettered progress in the Champions' League last night. The impressive Mario Jardel's scorching volley capped a second-half onslaught by Galatasaray that took the side from Istanbul to the top of Group D, with the return fixture at Ibrox their next game in three weeks' time.

Dick Advocaat started with the same line-up that defeated Monaco 1-0 last week, making just one tactical change of note as he moved the former Galatasaray favourite Tugay Kerimoglu into a midfield anchor role, where he stayed close to the Turkish side's playmaker Emre Belozoglu.

If the intimidating atmosphere was to Galatasaray's liking, the weather was on the Scots' side, with heavy rain leaving a slippery pitch. Rangers, however, failed to take advantage and made a nervous start to the game.

The first chance fell for Galatasaray's Jardel, the striker who almost went to Ibrox from Porto four years ago, but the Brazilian mis-timed his shot when the ball came to him on the edge of the area. Lorenzo Amoruso then stuck out a leg to stop the same player connecting at the far post, and when the subsequent corner was half-cleared Fatih Akyel saw his shot deflected wide.

Rangers made little headway up front in the first 20 minutes, except for an Amoruso free-kick that went straight to Claudio Taffarel off Ronald de Boer's boot. But they worked their way into the game with Allan Johnston twice dancing his way into the box.

On the first occasion the former Sunderland winger just failed to set up the marauding De Boer and then he won a corner that Van Bronckhorst put on to the head of Barry Ferguson, but his effort was disappointingly off-target.

Arthur Numan fired wide after making inroads down the left but the pressure was soon applied at the other end when Stefan Klos had to palm away Ergun Penbe's corner.

Three minutes before the break, Rangers' German goalkeeper was called upon again when Amoruso miskicked horribly and Klos had to tip the ball on to his bar. The rebound fell to Jardel but he could find only the side-netting.

Klos was needed again immediately after the restart when he parried an Emre shot, with Bert Konterman clearing the rebound. The home side had clearly decided to go for broke and Hakan Unsal was the next to call Klos into action, sliding to block the forward on the byline and hurting his ankle in the process.

Klos was able to continue but his next job was to pick the ball out of the net when Bulent Akin side-footed home Ergun's cross from the left after a neatly worked short corner.

Six minutes later, the lead was doubled when Hakan produced an even better finish, using the outside of his left foot from distance. Klos got a hand to it but could only divert it higher into the net.

Advocaat decided it was time to make changes with Kanchelskis coming on for Johnston, but straight away his side almost went three down when Umit Davala's shot was blocked on the line by Konterman and Emre blazed the rebound over.

In the 70th minute Jardel put the game out of Rangers' reach with a gloriously struck first-time effort from outside the area as he hit Umit's long ball on the volley.

To their credit Rangers replied within two minutes when Kanchelskis recorded a rare headed goal. Then Van Bronckhorst saw a shot well saved before rifling in a free-kick in injury time.

Galatasaray: Taffarel, Bulent Korkmaz, Popescu, Emre Belozoglu (Faruk Atalay, 76), Jardel, Hasan Sas (Ahmet Yildirim, 90) , Fatih Akyel, Umit Davala, Bulent Akin , Hakan Unsal, Ergun Penbe. Substitutes not used: Kerem Inan (gk), Serkan Aykut, Emre Asik, Marcio.

Rangers: Klos, Reyna, Konterman, Tugay, Amoruso, Van Bronckhorst, Ferguson, Numan, Johnston (Kanchelskis, 59), De Boer, Mols (Dodds, 67). Substitutes not used: Brown (gk), Ricksen, Albertz, McCann, Vidmar.

Referee: P Collina (Italy).