Rangers secured one of their most impressive European results in years, as Italian giants Parma crashed to defeat in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.

The BBC's Roddy Forsythe: "This performance by Rangers emphasise that they aim to be taken seriously again"

Goals by Tony Vidmar and Claudio Reyna have given the Glasgow side an excellent chance of reaching the group stages of the continent's premier club competition.

Dick Advocaat's team made the most of Fabio Cannavaro's first-half dismissal to power their way to victory.

But the Dutch manager stressed it was important not to get carried away with the result: "It is only half-time and it will still be very difficult in Italy because they will get some experienced players back from injury.

Dick Advocaat: "I'm pleased with the way we played"

"Tonight we played an excellent game but still we had some players who did not bring the performance they can bring to the team, and maybe that was due to the quality of Parma even though we controlled the game for most of the match."

The visitors were reduced to 10 men in the 26th minute when the Italian international defender was given his marching orders for a second yellow card, after deliberately charging into Rod Wallace on the edge of the Parma area.

Defeat avenged

Six minutes later Rangers, roared on by a passionate 49,000 crowd at Ibrox, punished the Italians by taking the lead.

Tony Vidmar: Opened the scoring at Ibrox

Neil McCann slipped the ball out to Vidmar who cut inside a defender before crashing a shot past Gianluigi Buffon into the roof of the net from 15 yards.

The goal capped a period of Rangers dominance and came just after keeper Buffon had blocked a shot from Reyna which ended a slick move.

Parma kocked Rangers out of the Uefa Cup last season on the way to winning the competition - but this time they were outplayed for long periods.

And they fell further behind in the 76th minute, when a cross from Wallace was laid back to Reyna and the American forward powered a shot past two defenders and the goalkeeper.

Rangers, who have been at the pinnacle of Scottish football for so long without making a significant impact in Europe, at last have a chance of transferring their domestic dominance onto the overseas stage in the return leg in two weeks.

Parma will have a lot to do if they are to break down Advocaat's well-drilled team.

Teams:

Rangers: Klos, Porrini, Moore, Amoruso, Vidmar, Ferguson, Van Bronckhorst, Mols, Wallace, Reyna, McCann. Subs: Albertz, Niemi, Amato, Adamczuk, Wilson, Johansson, McInnes.

Parma: Buffon, Sartor, Baggio, Ortega, Boghossian, Cannavaro, Di Vaio, Thuram, Serena, Vanoli, Walem. Subs: Micillo, Benarrivo, Breda, Fuser, Stanic, Torrisi, Montano.