Late Sporting goal denies Rangers but Walter Smith confident about return

The Rangers manager was left a frustrated figure last night as Sporting Lisbon took advantage of an invitation from his side to attack after Steven Whittaker had opened the scoring after 66 minutes.

It had seemed to have left little time for Sporting to reply, but they did - in the 89th minute, courtesy of a header from substitute Matias Fernandez. Rangers paid for sitting too far back, although Smith was also targeted by some fans for having failed to make any changes as the home side tired towards the end.

"There were not too many changes we could have made that would have made a great deal of difference to the game," said Smith in response to this charge. Steven Naismith sat on the bench throughout but should now be able to take his place in the side to face Celtic in Sunday's crucial league clash on Sunday. Smith suffered a setback during the warm-up when Jamie Ness injured his groin and had to withdraw from his place among the substitutes. He is now a doubt for the weekend.

Rangers were slow to start last night but grabbed a hold of the match when Whittaker scored with a header, from Vladimir Weiss's corner. He had shown an appetite for the fray having been pushed into midfield by Smith, who had worried prior to the match about the lack of experience in midfield. Even after Fernandez' late equaliser Rangers had chances to win the game, with Kyle Lafferty hitting the 'keeper Rui Patricio with shots from just inside the box.

Smith saw enough to believe his side can hit the net again in Lisbon, and in the stadium where they scored twice in 2008 after a 0-0 draw at Ibrox.

"We were a little bit disappointed by the way we started the first half," admitted Smith afterwards. "In the second half we played well up until we scored. We allowed Sporting too much of the ball and that culminated in us losing a goal near the end.

"I am just disappointed, having dictated most of the second half, to lose a goal like that. But I think going on tonight's performance there is not much between the teams. I have a feeling we can create opportunities (over there]."

Smith lamented the period of pressure from which Sporting sourced their late equaliser, but remained firm in his opinion that playing a more attack-minded formation had been the right course of action. "I didn't think it was a gamble," he said, having selected both Lafferty and El Hadji Diouf.

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"I just thought it was a reasonable way for us to play. Up until the last five minutes I think I was maybe correct."

Rangers captain David Weir also insists his team can recover from the disappointment of losing that late goal last night. "There's no doubt we can," he said when asked if they can go to Lisbon and score.

"The tie's still wide open, there's still all to play for, and I'm sure both teams will think they've got a chance."

Weir, though, admitted that Sporting's equaliser was a major blow. "It was disappointing. I didn't see it coming," the veteran defender added.

"I don't think they created a lot in the second half. I thought we had a couple of half-chances to make it 2-0, but it's a funny one at 1-0, you don't know whether to stick or twist."

Sporting coach Paulo Sergio was satisfied with the result but admits his side will have to at least match last night's efforts to progress to the last 16.

He said: "First of all we tried to win but at the end of this game a draw is a good result for us. We had control of the game and had three or four chances in the first half and Rangers had one. They scored a goal from a corner in the second half and we had to take more risks. We created chances and got the goal that put us in a better position for the second leg.

"We are still going to have a lot of work to do in that game. We have a lot of respect for Rangers and we will need to do the same, if not more, in the second leg."