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| UEFA Cup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 21 2007, 07:23 AM (1,306 Views) | |
| Simon | May 1 2008, 01:35 PM Post #46 |
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And Scotland will have its big night in May, just like the English, as Rangers beat Fiorentina on penalties after a 0-0 draw. Brave effort by the 'Gers who had Daniel Cousin sent off in extra time for stupidly leaning his head into Fabio Liverani. Contact was minimal of course, but the action in itself merited a second yellow card. Still, I wasn't impressed with the way Liverani crumpled to the ground and was even checking for blood. :rolleyes: I was pretty happy to see Liverani miss his penalty afterwards. It's good to see another British team in a final and they should have 95% of the support in the City of Manchester Stadium. But that will still be a tough task for them against Zenit, especially given the emphatic scoreline in their stuffing of Bayern! |
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| xeneize | May 1 2008, 02:34 PM Post #47 |
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What a story Zenit have been. Any team that beats Bayern Munich 4-0 deserves respect. But they also went on the road to Leverkusen and wiped them out with 4 goals too. I'm really interested in seeing how they'll do in this final. |
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| libero | May 1 2008, 05:24 PM Post #48 |
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What a disgustingly boring team Rangers are. I hope Zenit scores early on them and forces them to try and actually play a little soccer. Fiorentina blew their chances though in this semifinal and Vieri with one of their best opportunities tripped over the ball when it would have been easier to score. No surprise then that later on he missed one of the penalty kicks for Fiorentina. Zenit won my respect with that big win over Bayern Munich and they'll have my support in the final. |
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| Yogi | May 1 2008, 09:50 PM Post #49 |
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I wouldn't be so harsh with Rangers libero, they simply did what they thought it would take to advance to the final. Look Fiorentina were no great shakes in the two games either. Having said that I really enjoyed watching Zenit played and will be supporting them in the final. They closed down Bayern so quickly in midfield and when they got the ball they moved quickly as a unit forward. A very enjoyable team to watch. The only bad news for them is their star forward, a Russian international, please don't ask me his name as I can't recall it now but it begins with a "P", will miss the final due to accumulation of yellow cards. Tough break for he and his club but their collective play should be able to cover his absence for a single game. |
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| historyman | May 1 2008, 10:08 PM Post #50 |
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They may not be the prettiest side to watch, but they did a thoroughly professional job given their resources on the evening. If there's anyone to blame it's Fiorentina for squandering what chances they had. |
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| Simon | May 2 2008, 02:53 AM Post #51 |
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I never thought Fiorentina really went for it. They were pretty reticent and cautious before the end of the 90 minutes, and throughout extra time, and I thought it was becoming clear that the Italians fancied their chances in a penalty shoot-out. After all, that's how they put Everton out after they themselves did a lot of good defending at Goodison Park. They didn't really commit numbers forward last night and just left it to Vieri and Mutu to do it all for them. I've always liked Vieri but he seems well past it now, all his mobility is gone. Whacking his penalty over the bar just put the seal on a bad night for him. We should also remember that Rangers are a club of relatively few resources as historyman says, and that they are going for a Quadruple this season of all three Scottish domestic trophies and the UEFA Cup. They've played a huge amount of European football this season starting in early August with the 2nd Qualifying Round of the CL. If all this means they play on the counter-attack away in Florence in a European semi-final in May then so be it, I wouldn't criticise them too much. While Bayern were favourites for the UEFA Cup from the moment it became clear that they'd be in it, I expressed my doubts about whether they'd win it earlier in the thread. My main reason for that at the time was that I thought they'd be prioritising the Bundesliga in what was a really tight race in Germany. In retrospect that can't really explain Bayern's exit as they've walked the Bundesliga and all domestic pressure is off. Perhaps it is just difficult to have the mantle of favourites throughout a competition. I'm pleased with United's efforts this season as we were widely regarded as CL favourites in August and we've done well, but we haven't won anything yet and there can always be that game where you come unstuck. If I was surprised when the commentators in the Rangers game mentioned that Zenit were in the final, then I was shocked when they eventually reported the scoreline! Some of these East European teams have great looking squads but we still await the East European flourish in the CL. Dynamo Kiev and CSKA Moscow got just one point between them in the group stage while Shakhtar Donetsk looked good when winning their first two games but then lost their remaining four. If Zenit win the UEFA Cup, maybe it'll be a springboard for a decent CL run next season? |
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| shelsoccer | May 2 2008, 06:53 AM Post #52 |
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Pogrebiak is the name you're searching for, Yogi. Zenit will miss him in the final. The good news is that they'll get Arshavin back. A different type of player than Pogrebiak, but a very good one. |
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| rosarino | May 2 2008, 10:16 AM Post #53 |
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For those interested here is a Reuters article which provides a little background on Zenit, a team mostly unknown to so many of us, http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-...uters&type=lgns As shelsoccer noted while they lose star striker Pogrebnyak for the final, they will regain these suspended players who missed the 2nd leg win over Bayern Munich: Russia playmaker Andrei Arshavin, Czech international Radek Sirl and Dutch midfielder Fernando Ricksen. I was interested to find out that Alejandro "Chori" Dominguez is with the club now. He was a teammate of Saviola, D'Alesandro, Maxi Rodriguez and Coloccini on Argentina's excellent 2001 U-20 world championship team but I had lost track of him after he'd moved to Russia. It takes two to tango and Fiorentina, as some others also stated, didn't do all that much either in that other semifinal. Rangers may not be the most exciting team to watch but they've made their final and as Liverpool and Chelsea showed us sometimes even normally dull teams can pick their game up on the big occasion. |
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| raconteur | May 2 2008, 07:49 PM Post #54 |
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Good info on Zenit, thanks for the link. I didn't like the way Rangers played in the semifinals either, I can't blame them much for playing that way on the road but even at home they rarely ventured forward, that is something I don't like to see. Italian clubs are so often accused of being overly defensive but that has changed and Serie A is now a more wider open league but what Rangers did was so cautious it is hard to see them winning many fans outside their own core set of supporters. Pogrebnyak has been Zenit's top scorer and it will be interesting to see how they'll do without him in the final especially against a team inclined to defend like Rangers. Yogi thinks the team's collective play will help them overcome his loss and shelsoccer points out another star who will return for the game for Zenit but it will be a tall order for Zenit in the final, as Simon points out Rangers likely will have more supporters in the stadium in two weeks. Well at least the UEFA Cup winner will either be a team without any previous European titles (Zenit) or with only one, won many years ago (Rangers). That is the beauty of this tournament. |
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| SuperEagle | May 2 2008, 11:54 PM Post #55 |
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Bayern Munich were going for a "triple" this seaosn but it was crushingly ended by Zenit. That's as impressive a win as any all season long in Europe. They may not have any big names but they play well together, pass the ball effectively, are quick and well organized defensively. Zenit St. Petersburg will not be an easy team to beat. Look who they've already eliminated in this UEFA Cup- Villarreal, Marseille, Leverkusen and now the biggest of them all Bayern Munich. They are doing something right. |
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| historyman | May 13 2008, 01:59 PM Post #56 |
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Well, it's the UEFA cup final tomorrow evening. As I type approximately 100,000 Rangers fans are making the short trip down the motorway from Glasgow to lend their support to the cause. I wonder if the long and gruelling season that Rangers have had will make a vital difference in tomorrow's game? I'm not expecting a classic by any means. There's been a lot of comment in the UK media about the spooky similarities between Rangers' current campaign and the side that won the Cup Winners' Cup back in 1972. Have a look at this link. If you believe in omens then you should get to the bookies immediately! Echoes of 1972 |
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| Simon | May 13 2008, 02:08 PM Post #57 |
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Yes historyman, Manchester is absolutely full of Glaswegians ahead of tomorrow's UEFA Cup final. I think those 100,000 also brought all their mates! There are big screens in Albert Square, Exchange Square and elsewhere for the huge numbers of Scots travelling south without a ticket. Rangers did put a request in to the Scottish FA as they have a huge fixture pile-up in chasing their Quadruple and wanted the season extended by a week. They were denied and so they have to play something silly like 8 games in 18 days. They played 3 games last week, drawing one and winning two, they are four points behind Celtic in the league with two games in hand and now they play the UEFA Cup final. They are not the only finalist with an off-field controversy ahead of this game as it has emerged that Zenit have an official policy of not fielding any black players. There had been rumours about this but UEFA dragged their heels on investigating and it took confirmation from Dick Advocaat in a magazine interview to prompt UEFA to announce that they will look into it. Advocaat said "I don't care whether a player is black, white or red, I don't understand why it matters and I don't understand why I can't sign any black players. But my bosses and our fans would never permit it". That's terrible. I don't know how easy it will be for UEFA to prove Zenit's racism and they've been pretty slack in dealing with this issue in the past. However, it makes me hope that one of Rangers' black players can score the winning goal! |
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| SuperEagle | May 13 2008, 02:29 PM Post #58 |
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Wow, I didn't know about that either, how can UEFA let that go by? Thanks for making it easy now for me to choose which team to support tomorrow. C'mon Rangers! Like Simon wrote, wouldn't it be great if somebody like Darcheville scores the winning goal! |
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| enganche | May 13 2008, 08:48 PM Post #59 |
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That is incredible that Zenit would have such a policy. Teams all over Russia and the former Soviet Union are full of players from Africa or Brazil who are black. It is a sign of some serious problems at Zenit if their club policy, even if unofficial, is not to sign any black players because of their fans racism. I've seen wire service articles about Zenit's fans abusing Marseille's black players in an earlier round of the tournament and that Manchester's authorites are warning Zenit's fans not to engage in any racial abuse but I haven't seen any articles like Simon was referring to where the club admit they won't sign black players. I was looking forward to seeing Zenit after their great tournament run but after hearing this news it sure makes it hard to feel much sympathy for them now. |
| Prefiero morir de pie que vivir arrodillado | |
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| historyman | May 13 2008, 10:11 PM Post #60 |
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UEFA could find themselves in a quandry over this issue, especially as they have warned and fined Rangers in the recent past because of their fans' use of songs which are deemed to be anti-Roman Catholic. This is gearing up to be one of the most politically charged European finals in recent times. Let's hope that if the charges are proven, UEFA come down firm and hard on the Russian club. |
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