Under-pressure Rangers and Dynamo Kiev both need to clinch away victories to avoid exiting the Champions League at the qualifying round stage.

Scottish champions Rangers lost 1-0 at Ibrox last week to Malmo and head to Sweden knowing that in 55 years the club has never come back from losing a home leg to win a European tie.

But manager Ally McCoist believes Saturday’s 2-0 league win over St Johnstone could prove the key to overturning the deficit tomorrow.

“I firmly believe that on chances created in the second half against Malmo that we can turn it around,” said McCoist.

“Even against St Johnstone we created a fantastic number of goal-scoring opportunities and I believe we will do that over in Malmo.”

Dynamo’s hopes of making the play-off round – the next step in the tournament before the lucrative group stage kicks in – depend on overturning a 2-0 home loss to Russia’s Rubin Kazan.

“We’re not going to give up. We’ll prepare for the second leg, and time will tell,” said Dynamo coach Yuri Semin.

Danish champions Copenhagen, who reached the round of 16 last season, are 1-0 up on Shamrock Rovers ahead of their trip to Dublin while fellow group stage regulars Panathinaikos are in the box seat after a 1-1 draw at Odense.

Benfica take a 2-0 lead to Trabzonspor in Turkey.

The winners will go into Friday’s play-off draw which will see four-time champions Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Lyon and Villarreal as well as Udinese enter the fray.

Today’s second legs