RANGERS held PSV EINDHOVEN to a goalless draw in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie in Holland.
Manager Walter Smith opted for Neil Alexander ahead of Alan McGregor in goal, and his faith was rewarded as the former Ipswich Town and Cardiff City man saved well from Marcus Berg.
Marcelo headed a decent chance wide and Berg shot off-target before Rangers mustered a chance on goal, but Kyle Bartley was denied by a smart stop from Andreas Isaksson.
And Marcelo then wasted the best opportunity to separate the two sides, heading wide with the goal his mercy.
Elsewhere, Nilmar netted deep into added time as VILLARREAL snatched a 3-2 victory at BAYER LEVERKUSEN.
Michal Kadlec gave the hosts the lead with a powerful angled strike, but the visitors responded as Giuseppe Rossi and Nilmar turned the game on its head.
Castro cut inside his man to fire the hosts back onto level terms with 18 minutes remaining, but Nilmar bagged what could prove to be a huge third away goal in the 94th minute to put Villarreal in the driving seat for the second leg in Spain.
Fredy Guarin scored the only goal of the game as FC PORTO claimed a 1-0 victory at CSKA MOSCOW, while a first-half penalty from Alan was enough to give BRAGA a surprising 1-0 win against LIVERPOOL.
SPARTAK MOSCOW punished AJAX for a host of wasted chances as Alex’s goal earned the Russian side a 1-0 victory in Holland, and Luuk de Jong netted twice as FC TWENTE cruised to a 3-0 victory over ZENIT ST PETERSBURG.
And finally, Maxi Pereira and Franco Jara were on target as BENFICA responded to an early Pieguy Luyindula goal to earn a 2-1 victory over PARIS ST GERMAIN, and Andriy Shevchenko scored as DYNAMO MOSCOW beat MANCHESTER CITY 2-0.