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Rangers crashed out of the Champions League following a 2-0 home defeat against Stuttgart in Group G.

Walter Smith's team needed to beat the Germans to harbour any hopes of progressing to the knockout stage, but instead the Scottish champions choked in front of their own fans.

A penetrative raid down the left wing ended with on-loan Barcelona playmaker Alexander Hleb crossing for Sebastian Rudy to score the first goal after 16 minutes.

The scorer turned provider 14 minutes into the second half when he crossed for Zdravko Kuzmanovic to head the final nail in Rangers' European coffin.

With Unirea Urziceni beating Sevilla, who are already assured of their place in the last 16, it is all to play for in the final game when the Germans host the Romanians.

It was a third successive home defeat for Rangers in Europe, with the Gers shipping 10 goals at Ibrox and scoring just two.

In front of a crackling home support a frenetic pace consumed the opening exchanges.

Driven by desire and desperation the Rangers players flew into tackles, but it was the Germans who looked more accomplished on the ball and they fired their first warning shot barely six minutes into the game.

Arthur Boka cut in from the left wing, evading the attentions of Steven Whittaker, before feeding the ball into striker Cacau. The Brazilian-born German turned David Weir and thumped a right foot shot at goal from 20 yards; Allan McGregor did brilliantly to spring to his left and turn the ball around the post.

However, 10 minutes later there was nothing he could do as 19-year-old Rudy scored his first senior goal.

Yet again Rangers' Achilles heel, the left wing, was exposed. Former Arsenal player Hleb exchanged a one-two with Cacau, before reaching the byline and pulling the ball back to the arriving Pavel Pogrebnyak.

A horrible miscue from the Russian ran kindly for Rudy darting in at the back post and he slid the ball into the back of the net.

The SPL leaders struggled to shackle Cacau and on the half-hour the striker fizzed a rasping drive from distance inches past McGregor's left-hand post.

Despite deploying an adventurous 3-4-3 formation the home side offered very little going forward. Their best chance fell to Kris Boyd in the 37th minute: Stuttgart tried to break quickly following a commanding collection from Jens Lehmann, but Kenny Miller intercepted an underhit pass and whipped in an early cross from the right.

Boyd lurked menacingly, but could only manage to direct a terrible header over the bar and into the stands.

The visitors started the second half how they ended the first - containing Rangers with ease and dominating possession.

For all their industry the home side were devoid of any attacking threat. One of their few menacing moments was turned on its head to devastating effect.

Matthieu Delpierre cut out Steven Davis's through-ball to Miller and the Germans swept up field, with Rudy bursting down the right wing and crossing for an unmarked Kuzmanovic to head home the killer second goal with more than 30 minutes to play.

Had it not been for McGregor's heroics in goal Markus Babbel's men, who are third from bottom in the Bundesliga table, would have been out of sight moments later.

Rudy accelerated down the right wing and laid a pass into the feet of Cacau who stung the hands of McGregor with a fierce drive.

The rebound fell to the feet of Pogrebnyak, who looked offside, and with a clear sight of goal he should have added a third, but McGregor managed to fling out a leg and turn it over the bar.

The big Russian striker squandered another chance with 12 minutes to play. Hleb rode the challenge of Danny Wilson and laid a pass a little behind Pogrebnyak.

Afforded an abundance of time and space he swivelled in the box and crashed a shot against the outside of the post from close range when he really should have scored.

As the fans scurried for the exits McGregor kept the score line respectable as he repelled Stuttgart's target practice - Pogrebnyak, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Timo Gebhart were all denied by the goalkeeper.

Ben Welch / Eurosport