Rangers took a step closer to the Champions League at virtually walking pace tonight as Zalgiris Kaunas were never able to knock them off their stride.

An unremarkable scoreless draw never threatened to come alive as the home side struggled to exert any pressure in this second qualifying round second leg tie.

The real work for Rangers was done a week ago at Ibrox in a 4-1 victory which meant this game resembled little more than a training exercise for long periods.

What might worry Dick Advocaat is that Rangers, despite dominating proceedings in terms of possession, were unable to put away any of the chances created - and that failing could well be punished within the next week.

Vital

Danish champions Herfolge now await Rangers for a place in the first group phase of a competition in which success is vital to Rangers' season.

Advocaat was quick to warn his players that they must be on better form for the trip next Tuesday: "I think the players realise that we cannot repeat what we showed today in Kaunas against the Danes because then we have no chance against them.

"The team went out to do a job and get to the next stage, and we have done that but we still have a long way to go.

"We still have to work on our sharpness because at 2-1 a week ago before two goals in injury time in the first leg it was looking hard to come here.

"I am pleased result-wise and the lead we have going into the game meant I was quite relaxed - but I am not at all relaxed about the performance. It is good to win but as a manager you want to be the better side as well."

Disallowed

Rangers did have the ball in the net with five minutes remaining when a Bert Konterman header was disallowed for a foul and could easily have lost the game but for Giovanni van Bronckhorst heading a late effort off the line.

In last season's Champion League, Rangers beat the likes of Parma and PSV Eindhoven but showed little of that form and will need to improve rapidly in time for the Herfolge tie.

In a side with five changes from the first leg, Billy Dodds started well and was quickly involved setting up Rod Wallace after five minutes who just failed to clip the ball beyond advancing keeper Gytis Padimanskas.

Opportunity

Rangers missed a dream opportunity to move ahead in the ninth minute when Fernando Ricksen found himself clean through only to strike the bar and from the rebound Wallace conspired to head over an open goal.

The visitors were playing a relaxed passing game at a tempo which suited them and aside from a banner reading "we support Celtic", there was no hostility for Rangers to counter on or off the field in a sparsely populated ground.