Rangers will need to carry out a successful Italian job in Florence next week after they failed to score against Fiorentina in a nervy UEFA Cup semi-final, first-leg goalless draw on Thursday.
The Glasgow side will travel to Italy next Thursday knowing they will almost certainly need to net a crucial away goal if they are to make it to the final at the City of Manchester Stadium on May 14. Fiorentina had the better of the chances at Ibrox, but Cesare Prandelli’s men could not get that crucial away goal to leave the tie on a knife-edge.
“It was always going to be a tough game, but give credit to our defense, I thought we were superb,” Rangers keeper Neil Alexander told ITV4. “They’ve got some fantastic individuals. But I think we played well tonight and I think maybe they didn’t reach their full potential. Our record in the away games has been fantastic. We know we can go there and score.”
PHOTO: AP
Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist was also happy with a 0-0 result.
“That’s fine with me,” the former Scotland striker said. “This may be ironic coming from an ex-center forward, I thought the most important thing was keeping a clean sheet.”
Yet again Rangers could pay tribute to the defensively sound 4-5-1 system deployed by their tactically astute coach Walter Smith. Some of European soccer’s most fancied names have fallen by the wayside when encountering this solid and effective Rangers side this season. Spanish giants Barcelona could not score at Ibrox, VfB Stuttgart went home defeated with fellow Germans Werder Bremen, Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon and Greece’s Panathinaikos were all overcome as the ’Gers made it through to the last four against the predictions of many pundits.
The prize for dishing out the same sort of treatment to Serie A side Fiorentina?
Well, one carefully worded banner behind Alexander’s goal summed it up at kick-off time.
“This is your chance. This is your time. Become legends,” it read.
However, for those 10 words to inspire Rangers to reach their first European final for 36 years, they needed a special performance to seal a meeting with the winners of the other semi-final between Bayern Munich and Zenit St. Petersburg. Against a side who reached the UEFA Cup final 18 years ago, many of the players needed no introduction to the passionate 50,000 home crowd. And it was the biggest name in the “Viola” side that rose to the occasion — former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu.
Mutu has had a challenging time to rekindle his career after he was banned for seven months after testing positive for cocaine in 2004. Sacked by Chelsea, the Romanian rebuilt his reputation at Juventus, before moving to Fiorentina two years ago and he reveled in the chance to prove himself on the big stage of a major European semi-final.
He was gifted the chance to show what he could do as nervy Rangers defender Kirk Broadfoot mis-kicked a clearance straight to Mutu on nine minutes. However, Giampaolo Pazzini, lurking dangerously inside the penalty area, could not get his head on Mutu’s cross and Rangers survived the early scare.
Three minutes later Pazzini had another close range attempt blocked by experienced Scotland defender David Weir on the goal-line. Then, in the 15th minute, Rangers had their first chance. Steven Whittaker sent talisman Jean-Claude Darcheville racing clear on the left flank, but the man nick-named “The Rocket” for his blistering pace ran out of fuel at the key moment and drove a tame 15m strike into the hands of Sebastien Frey.
Whittaker then curled a 20m effort over Frey’s crossbar, before Alexander denied Denmark international Martin Jorgensen from a similar range at the other end.
Mutu then had one final chance before the break as his 31st minute downward header was saved by Alexander. The second period saw a far more adventurous looking home side, with Spaniard Nacho Novo getting forward more to support the attack.
Novo’s 55th minute cross almost set up the opening goal, but Steve Davis could not get his header on target. Then it was Novo’s turn to have a shot on goal as he used his pace to beat the offside trap before driving low into the side-netting.
However, as the clock ticked it was Fiorentina who looked most likely to score with Alexander having to be sharp to prevent a Mutu 35m strike from finding the top corner in the 75th minute.
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