Rangers' Champions League hopes were dealt a shattering blow when little-known Unirea Urziceni strolled to a 4-1 Group G victory at Ibrox.

The Romanian champions - managed by former Chelsea star Dan Petrescu - found themselves a goal down after just two minutes, but hit back in spectacular fashion to stun the blue half of Glasgow and leave Walter Smith's side with just one point from three games.

The Gers made a dream start when Jerome Rothen's second-minute corner picked out Pedro Mendes at the edge of the box and his left-footed shot cannoned off Ricardo Gomes and looped over goalkeeper Daniel Tudor to put the hosts 1-0 up. Mendes' free-kick then presented Kenny Miller with a chance, but his flicked header just cleared the crossbar.

But the Gers found themselves pegged back after 32 minutes when Pablo Brandon sneaked round Rothen down the left flank and his cross picked out the well-timed run of Marius Bilasco, who tapped home at the back post to make it 1-1.

However, Rangers were presented with a glorious chance to regain the lead seven minutes before the interval when David Weir's header was pushed away by the arm of Bruno Fernandes and the hosts were awarded a spot-kick. But Tudor pulled off an excellent save to his right to push out Steven Davis' penalty and leave Ibrox with a sense of dread that this was not to be their night.

The Romanians came out for the second half in a determined fashion and they stunned Ibrox into silence after 50 minutes when a well-worked short corner saw a shot drilled into the box which Fernandes experted backheeled goalwards with the ball cannoning in-off Allan McGregor's post. The ball took a slight deflection off Kyle Lafferty on its way in and the strike went down as an unwanted own goal for the Northern Irishman.

But there was no doubt about the third after Tiberlu Balan's superb free-kick into the box caused confusion in the area and McCulloch diverted a header beyond McGregor to make it 3-1 after 58 minutes.

The Romanians were coasting and when Brandan drilled in a well-worked fourth after 65 minutes, the Gers fans started to leave en-masse.

Rangers did their best to get back into the match but there was no way back as Unirea celebrated a famous win that lifted them up to second and in pole position to make it through to the knockout stages.