McGregor is Bremen heart-breaker

The heroics of goalkeeper Allan McGregor denied Werder Bremen as Rangers FC escaped the Weserstadion with a single-goal defeat to reach the UEFA Cup quarter-finals thanks to a 2-1 aggregate win.

Flying the flag
Two down following last week's Round of 16 first leg in Glasgow, Bremen controlled the match but could find only a Diego strike by way of a reply. Rangers duly advanced to Friday's last-eight draw as the sole remaining British team in the competition.

Belated reward
It took until the 58th minute for Bremen to make the breakthrough, courtesy of their little Brazilian playmaker. When the Rangers rearguard could only clear their lines as far as the edge of their area, Diego took charge. The No10 flicked the ball over one opponent and, as other Rangers defenders converged on him, fired a low shot beyond McGregor. The goal was belated reward for Bremen's incessant pressure, which began in the opening minutes when Per Mertesacker's knockdown from a corner was turned wide by Markus Rosenberg.

One-way traffic
After further attempts from Sebastian Boenisch and Hugo Almeida sailed off target, Tim Borowski timed his run into the Rangers box to perfection to control Diego's chip first time and volley over. Rosenberg and Daniel Jensen then had shots parried by McGregor from similar positions inside the area. Almeida headed over among a litany of near misses, while in a rare foray into Bremen territory, lone Rangers forward Lee McCulloch forced a save from Tim Wiese.

Game up
The longer the first half wore on, the more it seemed Walter Smith's men had weathered the storm. However, Bremen continued to dominate after the restart and McGregor did well to tip over a Jensen strike, before Mertesacker directed a free header over from the resulting corner. Diego's goal only intensified the efforts of Thomas Schaaf's team, yet as the clock ticked down on their chances, McGregor again proved the nemesis of the Bundesliga side. The Scottish international somehow managed to touch Boubacar Sanogo's close-range shot on to the crossbar after the substitute had been set up by Rosenberg, and then turned to safety a long-range drive from Naldo.