Rangers at point of no return as Walter Smith seeks vital win in Romania

WALTER Smith knows his chequered Champions League career will hit a fresh low point if Rangers fail to secure the result they need in Romania tonight to revive their hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase of this season's tournament.

The Ibrox club will essentially be eliminated with two Group G fixtures to spare if they lose to Unirea Urziceni at the Steaua Stadium in Bucharest, leaving them to try to salvage third place in the section and the consolation of Europa League football in the second half of the season.

And while a draw would retain their statistical hopes of progress to the last 16 of the elite competition, only a victory can genuinely propel Smith's team back into contention.

As he looks to arrest his team's slide on the continental stage, which has seen them suffer consecutive 4-1 home defeats against Sevilla and Unirea following a promising 1-1 draw with VfB Stuttgart in Germany on matchday one, Smith is ready to hand 17-year-old central defender Danny Wilson his European debut tonight.

"We need to take something from this game to stay in with a chance, it's as simple as that," Smith observed on arrival in the Romanian capital yesterday afternoon.

"As soon as the last match against Unirea was finished, we could not look any further ahead than this game in terms of where we stand in terms of qualification. We will obviously have to do far better than we did in the first match. We didn't acquit ourselves well at all, it was probably our poorest European performance for a long time. We have to try and turn that around and play in the manner we can. The game at Ibrox was not typical of us. We played much better in the other two games in the group against Stuttgart and Sevilla."

Smith dismissed suggestions from the local media that he had taken Unirea lightly before the first match, insisting incompetence rather than arrogance was the cause of Rangers' humiliating defeat. "I don't think we are in a position to disregard anyone and that certainly wasn't the case before the first game against Unirea," he added.

"We didn't think that way. We didn't play well on the evening, that's why we lost the match. It certainly wasn't because of disrespect towards Unirea."

While Madjid Bougherra remained at home because of injury, Lee McCulloch did travel with Rangers and is fit to start the match after recovering from a thigh injury.

But while McCulloch could partner captain David Weir in central defence, Smith is giving serious consideration to retaining Wilson in the role after the teenager impressed on his first team debut against Dundee in the Co-operative Insurance Cup quarter-final last Tuesday night and again in Sunday's aborted SPL fixture against Dundee United.

"It is good to have Lee back," said Smith. "We have been hit with injuries in defensive positions, so it is good that he is ready to start the match.

"I now have options for the position with Lee fit again and Danny proving he is also ready to step up when given the opportunities. It's one I will need to sleep on before making any final decision.

"McCulloch is an experienced player, but not necessarily in that position. Wilson is still a teenager and I need to consider whether it is in his and our best interests to protect or expose him to a game like this. He has played very well though since getting his break and it's not easy for a boy of 17 to come into the team the way he has.

"He's still young but this could be his time and he could be ready to step up now.

"It's sometimes easier for midfield players and forwards to come in and do a job but he has handled himself and the situation he has been in well.

"Because of the injuries we have had he obviously comes into our thinking for the Unirea game because when he's had opportunities, he has taken them. Whatever I decide, the whole team will have to play much better than we did against them at Ibrox if we are to take the points."

If Wilson plays, it would free McCulloch for a holding midfield role in Smith's favoured 4-1-4-1 European formation.

Veteran captain Weir, some 22 years Wilson's senior, accepts Rangers cannot simply rely on trying to return to the mean-spirited defending which served them so well in their run to the Uefa Cup final two seasons ago.

"Keeping solid at the back always has to be your first port of call," said Weir. "If you are not, then the other teams will always score. But we have to achieve a balance because we need to score goals as well. We need to play better than we did in the last game. We know that if we play the same way here, we will lose again.

"There is always going to be a nervousness when you are playing at a high level. Any mistakes will be punished and we have to adapt to that and get better. We didn't have European football last season after going out to Kaunas in the qualifying round, so it has been a bit new to us again as a squad.

"But if we keep getting bad results, then we are going to be out of Europe all together. So we have to get it right. No-one can tell us how to do it, we have to work it out for ourselves."

Unirea suffered their own injury blow yesterday when influential Portuguese defender Bruno Fernandes, who suffered thigh damage in their weekend league fixture, was unable to train and will miss tonight's match.