Smith revels in Rangers victory

There were contrasting emotions after Rangers FC came from behind to defeat VfB Stuttgart 2-1 in UEFA Champions League Group E. Winning manager Walter Smith revealed unbridled joy at three Matchday 1 points as opposite number Armin Veh was left to bemoan Stuttgart's inability to take advantage of a winning position.

Walter Smith, Rangers manager
I am obviously delighted to get off to a winning start. We don't have a lot of players with Champions League experience and we started a little bit slowly. Stuttgart were the better team in the first period and I was disappointed to concede when we did, but the players didn't let it affect them. We managed to get back into it and then get the lead. We are in an extremely tough section and we will have to play at an exceptionally high level to get anything at all, but if we can continue to get results like this it might make people sit up and take notice. That is up to us. We have shown tonight we can get a result at home, but we have to go away against exceptional teams. It's a big test for us, but any win in this group is a big factor.

Armin Veh, Stuttgart coach
I'm still trying to calm down: I'm not happy about it. In the first half we controlled the game and created chances, but the final pass was either intercepted or misplaced. In the second half we continued like that. We even scored the first goal and that is when you should take the points home with you. There was no reason to make the mistakes we did. For the equaliser, their full-back ran across the pitch and three men could not stop him. We then gave away the penalty to make it 2-1. We worked hard for 90 minutes and then fell asleep for three, but I'd prefer to play better and lose rather than play poorly and lose. I saw many good things from my team.