A second-half penalty from Lorenzo Amoruso was enough to earn Rangers a 1-0 win at Dundee United.

A game that was a pale imitation of Rangers' 6-1 victory here in September was decided when the Italian took advantage of a debatable spot kick award following a Craig Easton challenge on Russell Latapy.

Scotland manager Berti Vogts was in the directors box alongside his Dutch counterpart Dick Advocaat, who doubles in a still-mysterious role as Rangers director of football.

Vogts saw 13 Scotsmen take the field at the start, with 10 of them wearing the tangerine jerseys of the home team.

But if he had been taking notes his pen would still have had plenty of ink left at half-time, with only young United goalkeeper Paul Gallacher having stood out.

Gallacher, who had been elevated to the full squad from the Under-21s by Craig Brown last season, made a number of saves to deny Peter Lovenkrands three times and Amoruso from a free kick.

Lovenkrands occasionally had the beating of Jamie Fullarton, who was booked for hacking him down midway through the first half.

But Gallacher was equal to the resulting shots, including a spectacular tip round of a long-range effort that was probably going wide anyway.

Amoruso's free-kicks are notoriously inaccurate but not so when Michael Mols was fouled just outside the area. The Italian thundered his shot past the wall only to see Gallacher divert it over the bar.

The home side had been keen in the tackle but found creativity hard to come by. Their best chance of the half was their first one, in the second minute, when David Winters headed a Jim Lauchlan free kick into Stefan Klos' arms.

Rangers manager Alex McLeish had made five changes following Thursday night's UEFA Cup exit at Feyenoord, the first time he had tasted defeat in his new role.

Claudio Caniggia, Barry Ferguson, Ronald de Boer, Bert Konterman and Scott Wilson were all left out and although he travelled, Christian Nerlinger's seven-month absence from first team duty because of injury continued.

In came Mols, Maurice Ross, Latapy, Stephen Hughes and Fernando Ricksen.

Just as he had been in Rotterdam, Tore Andre Flo was left on the bench but he was on the pitch within 39 minutes when Mols limped off with a knee complaint that could put his stop-start recent career back on hold.

Gallacher's first post-break save was not so assured as he could only parry Neil McCann's low drive after Hughes had set him up, and it needed Danny Griffin to clear.

There was a glimmer of a chance for the home side in the 56th minute when Tony Vidmar added to his long list of Rotterdam defensive errors by allowing a long ball to reach Charlie Miller. But before the former Rangers midfielder could take advantage Amoruso stepped in.

Miller was still keen to get forward however and fired a snapshot just over from an angle.

The game was woken up from its torpor in the 68th minute when Rangers were awarded a penalty.

Easton was the offender, wrapping his legs round Latapy to topple the Trinidadian in the box.

Easton angrily accused Latapy of diving but it made no difference and Amoruso, in the absence of Ferguson and instead of Flo, had little difficulty netting the spot kick.

The result keeps Rangers' slim hopes of catching Celtic alive, although that also depends on beating bottom club St Johnstone and midweek and then winning next weekend's Old Firm derby at Ibrox.

For United, the afternoon's work effectively ended their hopes of a top-six finish.

The two sides could meet again in the Scottish Cup final however, but only if United overcome both Ayr and Celtic and Rangers get past Inverness or Partick.

Teams

Dundee Utd: Gallacher, McCunnie, Griffin, Lauchlan, Fullarton (McCracken 43), Easton, Hannah, Miller, Venetis (McConalogue 86), Winters (Carson 72), Thompson.

Subs Not Used: Jarvie, Duff.

Booked: Fullarton, Easton, McCracken.

Rangers: Klos, Ricksen, Amoruso, Vidmar, Numan, Ross, Hughes, Latapy (Dodds 72), McCann, Mols (Flo 38), Lovenkrands (Kanchelskis 77).

Subs Not Used: McGregor, Wilson.

Goals: Amoruso 68 pen.

Att: 9,386

Ref: W Young (Scotland).