Rangers referee blast

Michael Mols is shown the red card

Rangers manager Dick Advocaat has accused referee Urs Meier of dereliction of duty for sending off Michael Mols but not the opponent who appeared to strike the Dutch forward.

The Ibrox crowd were incensed during an explosive Champions League qualifier when the Swiss official sent off Mols but showed only a yellow card to Fener goalkeeper Recber Rustu.

Rustu had charged across the pitch to fell the Rangers striker during the 0-0 draw.

Mols' offence had been to kick Samuel Johnson off the ball after the pair had been seen to raise hands against each other moments before.

Advocaat insisted: "If he had to send one player off then he had to send both players off.

Refused to say

"To send off one player, that was the easiest option.

"The boy is down about it and that's normal. I will discuss it with him tomorrow.

An injured Mols is carried off

"It was about something that had happened before, then he reacted.

"But to react on the pitch is not good, it's quite simple."

Fener coach Mustafa Denizli refused to say whether he thought Meier had acted correctly according to the rules of the game.

He insisted: "I'm not a referee. It's his decision and nothing to do with me.

"But I do not approve of the goalkeeper's reaction."

The goalless end to the match means Rangers must score in Istanbul to take the tie, or at the very least hold out and then keep their collective nerve in the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.

But Advocaat insisted he had been delighted with the commitment shown by his team, which had been badly hit by injury before kick-off.

"I always ask for commitment from my players and tonight, especially with 10 men, they gave excellent commitment," he said.

"The players worked their socks off and we still have another game, so in the end I was quite pleased with 0-0.

"It was important not to lose a goal and we also had three excellent moments in front of goal.

"Our defending was excellent, especially when we were down to 10 men.

17 out of 17 unbeaten

"I couldn't have asked for more."

Denizli added: "I thought we were better than Rangers, but the result is not enough for the second game. We must be careful in Istanbul.

"We are on a hot streak on our own ground and have won 17 out of 17 there.

"That was against Turkish opposition and now we want to continue the run against European opposition.

"The game was played at a very high speed and tempo and was a fine advertisement for modern football."