Jorg Albertz finally ended a night of frustration for Rangers with a lashing drive from his less favoured and normally incompetent right boot in the 88th minute to give Dick Advocaat's side a fighting chance when they go to Germany next week for the second leg.
The game swung from either penalty box at a frenetic pace, and brewed inside an Ibrox atmosphere where yet another 50,000 crowd gathered to beseech Rangers to do something in Europe.
Beyond question, Rangers are missing the presence of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, whose injury is lingering painfully for player and club. Rangers again last night moved with plenty of passion, but van Bronckhorst's incisive passing brings danger to their play.
Advocaat certainly felt the pressure of having to take something from this first leg. For all the Dutchman's talk of German menace, the fact is Kaiserslautern have been a shambles in the Bundesliga, toiling from one defeat to the next as their new coach, Andy Brehme, has toiled where Otto Rehhagel failed. Last night, Youri Djorkaeff was skill personified, but his team-mates did not look so mesmerising.
In the opening half, to Advocaat's frustration, Rangers bludgeoned a whole sequence of efforts wide. Albertz, Arthur Numan and Kenny Miller were the main culprits, although how George Koch in Kaiserslautern's goal was allowed to block Barry Ferguson's drilled shot from six yards on the half hour was anyone's guess.
The Germans exhibited doggedness as only they can, but the nearest they came to stealing the lead in the opening period was when Djorkaeff's firm but poorly angled strike was fisted clear by Stefan Klos.
The Germans did not just frustrate Rangers, but had a habit of going down in the traditional mode of being hit by sniper-fire. A remarkable exponent of this time-wasting was Jorgen Pettersson.
The referee, the famously fussy and pendantic Frenchman Gilles Veissiere, could only endure this for so long before flashing Pettersson with a yellow card. Pettersson finally paid for his antics with a second yellow card and an ordering-off following a foul on Neil McCann.
RANGERS: Klos, Konterman, Amoruso, Wilson, Reyna, Ferguson, de Boer (McCann 70), Albertz, Numan, Miller, Mols (Wallace 86). Subs Not Used: Ricksen, Dodds, Tugay, Christensen, Vidmar. Booked: Mols, Ferguson. Goal: Albertz 88.
KAISERSLAUTERN: G Koch, Komljenovic, Yakin, Ramzy, H Koch, Hristov, Grammozis, Buck (Reich 90), Djorkaeff (Strasser 83), Pettersson, Lokvenc (Klose 57). Subs Not Used: Weidenfeller, Schjonberg, Marschall, Adzic. Sent Off: Pettersson (81). Booked: G Koch, Pettersson, Yakin.
Referee: G Veissiere (France).
