UEFA Cup Final Preview

By: Ian Rose | May 14th, 2008

That’s right, football fans. The wait is over. You can finally stop crossing off the days on your calendars, because the final of the UEFA Cup is here. Okay, so I know that the really big show is next week, but today is the kinda big show, and we at the Offside are all the hell over it.

With such a short distance to travel, the blue end of Glasgow has virtually emptied, and Rangers will feel like the home side today against the visitors, Zenit St. Petersburg of Russia. One side defended their way into the final, to the groans of neutrals everywhere. The other got here by kicking aside everyone’s favorite to win the cup. But now it’s down to 90 minutes and either could take it home.

Here’s a look at what we can expect from the match, and how the sides line up. One short note – there is plenty to talk about off of the pitch, with the race issues of Zenit and the sectarian issues of Rangers, but this preview is sticking to the football. Let’s hope the fans do the same.

The Managers
Rangers: Walter Smith, Zenit: Dick Advocaat
If there’s one thing this matchup has, it is management experience. Between the two bosses, there are 57 years of coaching experience waiting to pace the sidelines of City of Manchester stadium today. Smith has had stints with Everton and has coached every level of Scotland international side (U17, U21 and senior), but is best known for his times with Rangers. He previously led out the Gers from 1991-1998, during which he won 3 Scottish Cups, 3 league cups, and an astonishing 7 straight SPL titles. With Scotland, he presided over the first of two Euro 2008 qualifying wins over France, and the national side’s FIFA ranking went up 70 places during the three years of his lead. He then made a controversial move back to Rangers, seen by many in Scotland as a switch back to where he always really wanted to be. Since his return, Rangers have been on fire, winning another league cup and still alive for a possible quad. On the other sideline stands another ex-Rangers man in Advocaat, but it would seem a great coincidence if it wasn’t for the fact that he has coached so many sides in his career. Zenit is his seventh club job, with national team positions with the Netherlands, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates as well. He will be well remembered by Scottish fans as the coach of the Dutch team that demolished Scotland 6-1 in the playoff to qualify for Euro 2004. His moves have produced little in terms of hardware since his departure from Glasgow, where he led the Rangers to a domestic treble in 1999, and this would be by far the biggest prize of his career.
Advantage: Rangers (It might not be pretty, but Smith wins finals.)

Keepers
Rangers: Neil Alexander, Zenit: Vyacheslav Malafeev
Neil Alexander certainly didn’t start his season expecting to be staring down the barrel of a European cup final. The former Cardiff starter and 3-cap Scotland international came to Rangers this season knowing how unlikely he was to unseat Allan McGregor for the Rangers’ #1. When injury sidelined McGregor late in the April Old Firm derby, he stepped in, and has done better in the starting job than a lot of fans expected. Rangers have fallen a bit off of form domestically, and haven’t exactly lit up their opponents with shots on goal in Europe, but one aspect of their game that cannot be questioned is their strength at the back, and Alexander personally gets a huge amount of credit for the clean sheets that got them through the last two UEFA Cup rounds. Between the posts on the other side, Malafeev is perhaps even more responsible for his side’s success. When Zenit went to Germany for the first leg of their semifinal with Bayern Munich, they were seen as lambs to the slaughter. The Bayern strike force had so many weapons to choose from, and they all took aim at Malafeev’s goal. His 13 saves, some of them epic, kept Bayern to one goal, and a draw, at home, allowing Zenit to believe that they could do the job at home, which of course they did in dominant fashion. When he’s done in Manchester, he and many of his Zenit teammates will be off to join the rest of the Russian team in preparation for the even bigger stage of Euro 2008.
Advantage: Zenit (But both are fantastic, and I wouldn’t bet on a high score either way)

Defenses
As stated above, one thing you can’t question about Rangers is their defensive strength. Granted, it’s a lot easier to defend when you dedicate a few extra bodies to that purpose. The central defending pair of Carlos Cuellar and Davie Weir has been an absolute wall this season, and Cuellar is one of only two players that have played every minute of this UEFA Cup campaign. The other has been right back Kirk Broadfoot, whose European performances have gone a long way toward turning around Rangers fans’ negative opinion of him. Zenit’s defense for the UEFA Cup campaign has been built around Croatian fullback Ivica Križanac, the only pure defender that has consistently found playing time for the team. The other side of the coin when talking about Malafeev’s performance in Munich is that he wouldn’t have needed to make so many saves if there was a better back line in front of him.
Advantage: Rangers

Midfields
As you move forward in the Rangers lineup, things start to look significantly less rosy. Whether you refer to Walter Smith’s conservative 4-5-1 as “defensive” or “negative”, it has not impressed with it’s ability to create meaningful and productive spells of possession. In the semifinal at Ibrox, one could be forgiven for thinking Rangers were the away side, content to boot balls away rather than try to create moves forward. Fiorentina took 56% of the possession in Glasgow and 54% in Italy, and they were allowed the run of the pitch until hitting the wall of defenders. It worked, but not because of the Rangers midfield. Zenit’s midfield is led by team captain Anatoliy Tymoschuk, who is the only member of the team to have played every minute of Zenit’s 14 UEFA Cup qualifiers and matches. Konstantin Zyryanov and Viktor Fayzulin both scored in the rout over Bayern, and they have an attacking midfield that has proven it can run roughshod on its day. They won’t find nearly as much space in the Rangers defense, but they have the quality to make things very difficult.
Advantage: Zenit

Forwards
Finally, the strikers. Both teams are missing options up front, but the suspension might be a bit more harmful to Zenit. Pavel Pogrebnyak, Zenit’s star throughout this campaign, and a name certain to be heard in June during Euro 2008, will miss this match for a yellow card suspension. Pavel’s Russia strike partner Andrei Arshavin will be taking up a lot of the slack, and hoping to repeat his great performance against Leverkusen in the quarterfinals. He will be joined up front by either Fatih Tekke or Alejandro Dominguez. Rangers, of course, are hardly known for their scoring in this campaign. Daniel Cousin is suspended for the match, making it even more likely that Jean-Claude Darcheville will get the start. There are dangerous options in Nacho Novo and Kris Boyd, possibly the best goal poacher in the Scottish game, but the fact remains that they need to get the ball in the opponents’ side of the pitch, and that just hasn’t happened that often for Rangers in this tournament.
Advantage: Zenit (but only slightly without Pogrebnyak)

Enjoy the match. I’ll be on as it gets closer to liveblog all of the cup final excitement. We’ve had some screamers in this season, and some yawners as well (looking at you, Gers). Let’s hope for some good play and some good goals to bring this 37th UEFA Cup to a close.