De Boer grinds down Dynamo as Rangers cruise

First-half flurry of goals in Russian capital puts Advocaat's side out of sight and safely through to third round

Rangers coasted past Dynamo Moscow to set up a potential glamour tie in the Uefa Cup third round.

Dick Advocaat's side, who had reached this stage of the competition three times before under the Dutchman, will learn today who their next opponents will be.

Dynamo offered Rangers few problems on a cold, wet night in the Russian capital but it will be a major surprise if the next time the Scottish visitors are called upon in this competition the task is not a much sterner one.

With the tie standing at 3-1 in Rangers' favour from the first leg an early away goal was all but a guarantee of aggregate success. It duly arrived courtesy of Ronald de Boer, but not before Claudio Reyna had spurned a great chance with a poor fifth-minute finish after Arthur Numan had played the ball into the American's path as he burst into the box. Reyna could not reproduce either of the cool finishes seen at Livingston last Saturday and screwed the ball wide.

However, just three minutes later a sliced attempt at a clearance by Darius Zutautas gave Rangers a corner from which they took the lead. Claudio Caniggia swung the ball in, Bert Konterman rose to head the ball across goal and De Boer was lurking unmarked at the back post for the simplest of finishes.

A corner move saw Rangers double their lead soon after the quarter-hour mark. The goal was a major embarrassment for the Dynamo goalkeeper Vasily Khomutovsky.

A short corner routine saw Barry Ferguson swing the ball into the danger zone and Fernando Ricksen rose to challenge the goalkeeper, who had just denied Reyna with a fine save. This time the goalkeeper let the ball slip through his hands and into the net for an own goal.

Dynamo gave themselves a glimmer of hope when the Rangers centre-back Craig Moore was booked for bringing down Vitaly Grishin in full flight after Numan had carelessly surrendered possession. Rolan Gusev, Dynamo's scorer at Ibrox, stepped up to send the free-kick past the wall and the visiting goalkeeper Stefan Klos from 20 yards out.

That goal put Dynamo back in the match, if not the tie, but they were left looking for a miracle when Tore Andre Flo made it 3-1 in the 42nd minute. De Boer showed great skill to give Deividas Semberas the slip before pushing the ball into the Norwegian striker's path. The flags stayed down and Flo blasted the ball past Khomutovsky for his fourth European goal for Rangers and his first for four games. That meant that the Russians were chasing a five-goal target after the break and they never remotely looked like pulling it off.

Rangers were less of a threat at the other end either but, of course, they no longer needed to be. However, the introduction of the substitutes Peter Lovenkrands and Russell Latapy sparked new life into the Scots when De Boer and Caniggia were withdrawn and a fourth goal duly emerged. Flo and Latapy combined to send the fleet-footed Lovenkrands through and he took the ball round the goalkeeper for a simple finish.

The Gusev goal apart, this was a night of few problems for Rangers, who had harboured a few lingering fears that the home side might just have been good enough to secure the 2-0 win they had required before kick-off. There had been one small setback, however, when the coach on the way to the game broke down and they had to hire two mini-buses.

Dynamo Moscow: Khomutovsky, Tochilin, Hornyak, Zutautas, Novikov, Bystrov (Nemov, 80), Gusev, Dyatel (Shapovalov, h-t), Grishin, Semberas, Bulykin (Medvedev, h-t). Substitutes not used: Kramarenko (gk), Kharlachev, Chesnauskis, Kozlov.

Rangers: Klos, Ricksen, Moore, Amoruso, Numan, Konterman, Reyna, Ferguson, De Boer (Lovenkrands, 72), Caniggia (Latapy, 72), Flo (Mols, 80). Substitutes not used: Christiansen (gk), Ball, Wilson, Ross.

Referee: P Rodomonti (Italy).