Anorthosis pulled a goal back through Nikolaus Frousos, but Rangers will be confident of winning the return match at Ibrox after scoring two away goals in the first leg of their third qualifying round tie.
Their manager, Alex McLeish, had claimed he was still weighing up whether to hand new signing Julien Rodriguez his debut 24 hours before the game and, in the end, he opted to take the gamble.
The breakthrough for the visitors came after 65 minutes when Novo reacted quickly to pounce on a rebound. Rangers doubled their advantage six minutes later, with Ricksen calmly slipping the ball under the body of the Famagusta goalkeeper from 12 yards.
Anorthosis Famagusta: Georgallides; Poursaitides, Haxhi, Louka, Xenidis, Maragos, Frousos, Kinkladze, Ketsbaia, Tsitaishvili, Nicolaou. Substitutes: Kokkinos, Kampantais, Markou, Tsolakides, Konstantinou, Samaras, Parmakis.
Rangers: Waterreus; Pierre-Fanfan, Andrews, Rodriguez, Ball, Ricksen, Ferguson, Murray, Buffel, Novo, Prso. Substitutes: Klos, Thompson, Malcolm, Alex Rae, Lovenkrands, Burke, McCormack.
Referee: F De Bleeckere (Belgium).
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