Football: Rangers left to rue Tarnat's late equaliser

Rangers 1 Bayern Munich 1

BAYERN MUNICH managed to get a bit of their own back on the British with a last-minute retaliation that sucked the wind out of Ibrox last night. With a raucous partisan crowd pumping up the volume to hail a much- needed Group F victory for Rangers - thanks ironically to a German, Jorg Albertz - Michael Tarnat rescued last season's beaten finalists.

Arthur Numan's foul on Alexander Zickler in the 89th minute gave Stefan Effenberg the chance to touch a free-kick to Tarnat, whose 25-yard shot took a wicked deflection to beat Lionel Charbonnier, the Rangers keeper. But, after the Nou Camp, who would claim Bayern are not owed that?

Any doubts that Rangers had failed to clear last week's hangover in Valencia from their system were dispelled after just four minutes when a neat move ended with Giovanni van Bronckhorst's dipping shot just going a fraction too high.

It was to be a significant omen, because Dick Advocaat's players - augmented by the return of Numan, Jonatan Johansson and Albertz - set about Bayern with a vigour. Johansson read Michael Mols' flick-on and connected to conjure up a hook shot that looked to be sneaking in at the post until Stefan Wessels, Bayern's young third-choice goalkeeper, reacted quickly to paw the ball away.

Lothar Matthaus, the Bayern captain, had said they would protect Wessels and the German side displayed a confidence bordering on arrogance at times with their possession game. But Bayern did not enjoy the sole copyright - Albertz had the home fans on their feet with a lovely nutmeg on Jens Jeremies. Effenberg ultimately snuffed out the danger, but Rangers had indicated they were ready to raise the stakes.

The growing shift in power was underlined in the 22nd minute when Albertz gave Rangers the lead. Claudio Reyna dribbled across the edge of the box, forcing Bixente Lizarazu into a tackle. The ball then broke to Albertz, who thumped a trademark low drive past Wessels.

On came the striker Carsten Jancker for full-back Lizarazu at the start of the second half and Bayern were almost rewarded with an equaliser in the 49th minute when he fed the ball to Giovane Elber, who had worked his way free on the left, but the Brazilian's raking shot went agonisingly wide.

Bayern were prepared to take more risks in committing men forward, but that only led to Rangers finding a cache of opportunities of their own. Albertz squandered a free header by sending it over the bar and then Mols watched Wessels push away a stinging shot.

Rangers (4-4-2): Charbonnier; Porrini, Amoruso, Moore, Numan; Reyna, Ferguson, Van Bronckhorst, Albertz; Mols (Hendry, 83), Johansson (McCann, 90). Substitutes not used: Niemi, Kanchelskis, Wallace, Vidmar, Adamczuk.

Bayern Munich (3-4-3): Wessels; Linke, Matthaus (Zickler, 80), Kuffour; Jeremies, Tarnat, Effenberg, Lizarazu (Jancker, 46); Scholl, Elber (Santa Cruz, 72), Salihamidzic. Substitutes not used: Schlosser, Andersson, Strunz, Fink.

Referee: R Wojcik (Poland).