Friday 2 May 2008

An amazing night for Rangers

I'm in (delighted) shock. Rangers are in the UEFA Cup Final after an extraordinarily resilient display against Fiorentina and a penalty shoot-out victory. Unsurprisingly, the superior Italians dominated for 120 minutes, reports Goal.com. But a mixture of poor finishing and heroic Blues defending allowed the Scots to hold on in extra time for penalties. Then substitute Nacho Novo struck home the winning spot-kick to take 'Gers through. Fiorentina star Zdravko Kuzmanovic had last night told the media that it would be "a disaster" if his club crashed out of the UEFA Cup to Rangers. The reaction since has been sour grapes. Heads will no doubt roll.

There's a dimension to the Glasgow side, associated with sectarianism, that I've never liked. Plus no-one should pretend that 'the best team won' in the semi. But there's no doubt, this is a great night for Scottish football. With Russian team Zenit St Petersburg surprisingly demolishing tournament favourites Bayern Munich 4-0 (5-1 on aggregate), the 'Gers will probably never get a better chance to lift this trophy than on 14 May 2008 in the City of Manchester stadium.
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