UEFA Cup finals were way past for me; Walter Smith

Glasgow Rangers will meet Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Cup final following upset victories Thursday night. Rangers advanced to its first European final since 1972, winning 4-2 on penalty kicks at Fiorentina following a 0-0 tie in overtime left the aggregate scoreless in the home-and-home semifinal.

Zenit sent visiting Bayern Munich to its most one-sided defeat in six years, beating the German Bundesliga leader 4-0 to win 5-1 on aggregate and reach the UEFA Cup final for the first time. The final of Europe’s No. 2 club competition is May 14 at Manchester, England.

At Florence, Fiorentina took the first 15 shots of the match and finished with a 29-7 advantage. Rangers didn’t take its first shot until the 77th minute.

“It’s a huge disappointment. Our team deserved to reach the final,” Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli said. “We just didn’t have the luck on our side.”

Glasgow’s Barry Ferguson took the initial penalty kick and was stopped by goalkeeper Sebastien Frey, but Steven Whittaker, Sas Papac, Brahim Hemdani and Nacho Novo all converted.

Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Riccardo Montolivo made Fiorentina’s first two kicks, but Fabio Liverani’s shot was saved by goalkeeper Neil Alexander and Christian Vieri sent his shot over the crossbar, putting Novo in position to make the winning kick.

“Personally, I thought European Cup finals were way past for me,” said Walter Smith, Rangers’ 60-year-old manager.

Bayern had not lost a match by four goals since a 5-1 Bundesliga defeat at Schalke on Jan. 26, 2002. The four-goal defeat matched its largest in a UEFA competition: This was the fifth time, the first since a 6-2 loss at Copenhagen in the UEFA Cup on Oct. 22, 1991.

Pavel Pogrebnyak scored in the fourth minute on a 23-minute free kick that went through the wall of defenders and past goalkeeper Oliver Kahn. Konstantin Zyryanov scored in the 39th, Victor Fayzulin in the 49th and Pogrebnyak in the 73rd, tying Bayern’s Luca Toni for the tournament lead with 10 goals. Pogrebnyak will miss the final after receiving a yellow card in the 76th.

Zenit became only the second Russian club to reach the UEFA Cup final, following CSKA Moscow, which won the title in 2005.

by yahoo/afp