ONE of the city of Xanthi's most famous inhabitants was the laughing philosopher Democritus, but Middlesbrough comfortably avoided becoming a laughing stock last night.

There was never any danger of them suffering the humiliation of being dumped out of the UEFA Cup at the first stage by one of European football's lesser lights.

Skoda Xanthi, whose home ground boasts a tiny capacity of just 7,500, may have long-term ambitions of being Champions League competitors but for now they remain one of European football's anonymous also-rans.

Boro manager Steve McClaren, under-fire from supporters since the weekend defeat by Sunderland, steered his team into the group stage for the second successive season by preserving their two-goal advantage from the first leg.

Boro's progress should not have been in doubt after being paired with one of Greek football's rising outfits, and there was never any real cause for alarm at the Xanthi Arena last night.

In fact, had striker Massimo Maccarone's first-half goal not been wrongly ruled out for offside then the second half would have been a non-contest before it had even started.

Maccarone pounced inside the six-yard box to tap in the loose ball after goalkeeper Petr Pizanowski failed to hold a routine effort from James Morrison. But the away goal McClaren craved failed to materialise.

The clean sheet, however, ensured chairman Steve Gibson was proved right to back his under-fire manager on the eve of the second leg.

With the Rodolpi mountains providing the backdrop to the tiny stadium, situated among farmers' fields a few miles outside the centre of the city, there can't have been many stranger venues holding UEFA Cup fixtures last night.

Xanthi didn't even expect to turn the result on its head, citing the uphill challenge as just too steep before the first ball had even been kicked here in the Thrace district of Greece.

Whether or not they thought their task was made easier by the appearance of Franck Queudrue in the starting line-up was open to debate.

Left-back Queudrue, who shrugged off the shin injury sustained in Sunday's defeat, was named on the left of midfield and that meant natural winger, albeit a young one, Adam Johnson was named only among the seven substitutes.

Regardless of who was playing where, one thing Boro struggled with from the first moment was the incredibly poor playing surface.

With that in mind, it is little wonder Xanthi boast such a good home record.

They are unbeaten at the Arena this season and have still not conceded a goal, a fact that clearly instilled plenty of confidence into the team for last night's encounter.

With less than three minutes on the clock, and plenty of passes having already failed to find their man on the bobbly ground, Xanthi were quick to show their determination to make a fight of things by having the first effort on goal.

Roaming attacking midfielder Luciano cut inside from the right and struck a sweet left-foot shot from 25 yards that was unconvincingly punched away by goalkeeper Brad Jones.

The tricky Brazilian's position was always expected but Boro struggled to keep track of his movement and he went close again a quarter of an hour later.

Luciano picked up the loose ball, turned and unleashed a low left-foot drive that rolled narrowly wide, although Jones had got down quickly to cover.

The forward was not the only South American in the Xanthi ranks to cause Boro problems.

Former Riverside Stadium hero Emerson may now be the wrong side of 30 but showed he has not lost his ability to shrug off challenges while in possession.

And, after Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Doriva had shot well off target, it was Emerson's invention that very nearly led to the crucial opening goal.

The strong-running midfielder's clever trick worked him clear of his marker before he fed Chiqinho on the left. But his cross into the box was turned wide by the left boot of Levan Maghradze.

That seemed to spark Boro into life. Xanthi suddenly lost some of their early belief and the Premiership side got more of a foothold on proceedings.

A little more urgency had the visitors actually coming away from tackles with the ball, while Czech goalkeeper Pizanowski was finally tested.

After Maccarone had his poacher's goal ruled out, Hasselbaink proved he has overcome a recent thigh problem by firing a bending right-foot rocket that had to be turned behind for a corner by Pizanowski's outstretched left arm.

Having reached the interval unscathed, Boro had all but finished the job.

But McClaren had to guard his men against complacency creeping in after the restart - and that was something he achieved.

Despite Xanthi' standing second in the Greek league, they failed to trouble Mark Schwarzer's young Australian understudy, Jones, in the Boro goal anywhere near as often as they would have liked.

As the hour passed, Xanthi resembled a team who had accepted their second European campaign was over.

They continued to play some nice football but the match became more of a training ground game and the Boro rearguard, well marshalled by captain Gareth Southgate, had very little opposition in their part of the field.

Result: Skoda Xanthi 0 Middlesbrough 0 (Boro win 2 - 0 on aggregate).

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