A poor end to their domestic campaign may have resulted in Rangers missing out on the SPL title to Old Firm rivals Celtic, but the 2007-08 season will be remembered for their achievements in Europe. They were eliminated at the group stage of the Champions League after being drawn against Barcelona, Lyon and Stuttgart, but after Christmas, the Glasgow giants embarked on a fairytale run to the final of the UEFA Cup.
After Panathinaikos and Werder Bremen had been seen off by the narrowest of margins, Sporting Lisbon were dispatched in the last eight before they reached the final with a 4-2 win on penalties at Fiorentina after 210 minutes passed without a goal. It was the club's defensive record that had proved pivotal during their run to the final, with just two goals being conceded in eight fixtures.
Lying in wait for Walter Smith's men would be Zenit St Petersburg, who had also put together a run of superb results since the the turn of the year. Villarreal, Marseille and Bayer Leverkusen had all been defeated before the Russian outfit ran riot in the second leg of their semi-final against Bayern Munich to reach their first major European final.
The match would see Zenit boss Dick Advocaat reunited with the Scottish giants after winning two league titles at Ibrox between 1998 and 2002. His team had netted five goals during their tie with Bayern and it was enough for his opposite number Smith to employ two defensive midfielders in order to combat the attacking threat offered by the Russians in the final third.
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However, the change in formation failed to stop Zenit creating the first clear-cut opportunity as early as the fourth minute. After Rangers midfielder Brahim Hemdani had been caught in possession, the ball was played forward to Andrey Arshavin but the Russian winger could only drive into the side-netting from eight yards out.
Soon afterwards, Alexander Anyukov saw a half-volley easily held by goalkeeper Neil Alexander while Anatoliy Tymoschuk also failed to threaten an opening goal despite finding the target from long range. While Rangers were proving effective in defence, they were equally poor in the final third, with only a Steven Whittaker header coming anywhere near to giving them a surprise lead.
Despite a lacklustre display in the first half, Rangers flew out of the blocks at the start of the second with Jean-Claude Darcheville forcing a solid intervention out of Zenit stopper Vyacheslav Malafeev before Barry Ferguson struck the woodwork after directing the ball towards goal following a scramble inside the penalty area.
However, as the match progressed towards the final quarter, Zenit slowly began to regain control in the middle of the pitch, and after Arshavin had seen his floated effort cleared off the line by Sasa Papac, they found a way to break down the Scottish side's backline with 18 minutes left on the clock.
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After collecting the ball 25 yards from goal, Arshavin played a precise through-ball into the path of the advancing Igor Denisov who made no mistake in sliding the ball to the left of Alexander and into the bottom corner.
Rangers chief Smith threw on Nacho Novo, Lee McCulloch and Kris Boyd in an attempt to find an equaliser, but their introduction left gaps at the back and Konstantin Zyryanov came agonisingly close to sealing victory for Zenit when driving against the outside of the post.
However, after the game had entered added-on time, Zyryanov did put the result beyond Rangers after he got in front of his defender to tap home from two yards after Fatih Tekke had done well on the left-hand side of the penalty area to create the opening.
Their success back home resulted in Zenit qualifying for the Champions League group stages for the first time in their history, meaning that they wouldn't get an immediate opportunity to defend their crown. However, after finishing third in a group involving Real Madrid and Juventus, they would drop back into the UEFA Cup but they couldn't repeat their efforts of the previous year, eventually losing to Udinese in the last 16.
Zenit St Petersburg: Malafeev, Aniukov, Krizanac, Shirokov, Sirl, Tymoschuk, Zyryanov, Denisov, Faitzulin, Tekke, Arshavin
Subs: Contofalsky, Radimov, Dominguez, Ricksen, Ionov, Gorshkov, Kim
Rangers: Alexander, Broadfoot, Weir, Cuellar, Papac, Hemdani, Whittaker, Ferguson, Thomson, Davis, Darcheville.
Subs: Graeme Smith, Adam, Dailly, Faye, McCulloch, Novo, Boyd
Darren Plant
