Glasgow Rangers 2 - Villarreal 2

Rangers: Waterreus; Hutton, Kyrgiakos, Rodríguez, Smith; Burke, Ferguson, Hemdani, Namouchi (Buffel 69'), Prso (Boyd 89'), Loevenkrans (Novo 75'). 4-4-2.
Villarreal: Viera; Javi Venta, Peña, Gonzalo Rodríguez, Arruabarrena (Sorín 61'); Josico, Marcos Senna, Tacchinardi; Riquelme (César Arzo 90'); José Marí (Roger 84'), Diego Forlán. 4-3-1-2.

Goals:
0-1. 08. Riquelme (penalty). After Prso handled Riquelme's corner in area.
1-1. 22. Loevenkrans. Curled shot past Viera after Burke tackled by Gonzalo.
1-2. 35. Diego Forlán. Fired shot into roof of net after Gonzalo pulled ball down.
2-2. 82. Peña (own goal). Deflected cross from Buffel over head of Viera.

Villarreal came away from their first leg tie against Rangers with a result which sets them up nicely for the second leg, although they must think themselves hard done by after having two goals disallowed, going ahead twice and then putting through their own net late on.

Pellegrini's side took the lead in the eighth minute with a Riquelme penalty after Prso inexplicably handled Riquelme's corner in the area. A few minutes later Waterreus kept out a close range shot from José Marí, and Gonzalo bundled the ball in to the net only for it to be disallowed for a borderline offside.

Rangers drew level though midway through the first half, Gonzalo managing to tackle Burke after a good run by the midfielder but only managing to clear as far as Loevenkrans, who curled a shot into the top of the net. A few minutes later Diego Forlán thought he had restored the lead after running through to beat the keeper, but once again referee Eric Poulat blew the whistle for offside, this time incorrectly.

Ten minutes before the break though Forlán did get his name on the scoresheet for the first time for Villarreal in the Champions League proper, Gonzalo controlling Riquelme's free kick and laying the ball across for the striker to score. And it could have been more had Waterreus not saved from Forlán a couple of times either side of half time.

However with eight minutes to go to the final whistle, Peña deflected a ball over the head of Viera trying to cut out Buffel's cross to level the match once again. Sorín could have put the visitors ahead soon afterwards when he hit the side netting, but the Scottish side thought they should have had a penalty when a Prso header hit Tacchinardi on the arm. In the end though the scores were even, setting up an interesting return match in Spain in a fortnight's time.