Rangers assistant boss Ally McCoist insists his team will be a tougher European proposition this year after their humbling defeat in last year's competition.

The Gers kick off their Champions League campaign in Germany on Wednesday night against 2007 Bundesliga champions Stuttgart who splashed out over the summer signing Russian forward Pavel Pogrebnyak from Zenit Saint Petersburg and Belarus midfielder Alexander Hleb on loan from Barcelona.

And the Glasgow outfit will be looking to banish all memories from last year's competition, where they crashed out in the qualifying round 2-1 to Lithuanian minnows FBK Kaunas.

But McCoist is adamant Rangers learnt their lesson from last season's embarrassing defeat and will instead be summoning memories of the Scottish club's European run two years ago when they reached the UEFA Cup final.

"We're really looking forward to the tournament again this year but we're also coming into it with a lot more realism," said McCoist.

"We had a massive high two seasons ago with the UEFA Cup final and less than three months later we were out of Europe completely - it was really hard for the lads to watch the Champions League last on TV last year but we have to get over it as a team.

"You don't experience such dramatic highs and lows too often as footballer but if you can handle it, it makes you stronger."