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Zenit Lift First Ever European Trophy in UEFA Cup

Written by Adeleke Afolayan

Thursday, 15 May 2008

Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg yesterday were crowned UEFA Cup champions after a battling 2-0 win over Rangers at the City of Manchester Stadium with goals from Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zurianov.

The match had begun on a cautious note from both sides though Zenit looked the more likely to scoring in the match as Rangers continued their trademark defensive approach that brought them to the final.

The approach by Walter Smith seemed to be working as halftime came with scores still goalless and without top scorer Pavel Progrebniak, Zenit were not as dangerous upfront as was the case in previous rounds.

The second half however sparked to life with Rangers actually coming forward and coming close to scoring through Jean Claude Darcheville and Barry Ferguson whose shot hit the side of the Zenit post. The Scottish side had shouts for a penalty turned down by the referee.

From the resulting corner, Zenit struggled to clear and Malafeev pushed out a goal bound shot while the Zenit defense cleared off the line from the rebound. That clearance led to a breakaway counterattack which saw Arshavin round Gers keeper Alexander before watching Papac head his looped goal bound effort off the line.

Zenit however took the lead with 18 minutes to go through Denisov who dispossessed a Rangers player, passed to Andrei Arshavin; named player of the tournament, continued his run towards goal and duly received a defence splitting return pass from the creative midfielder and slot home.

That goal got to the Rangers manager who switched to attack mode by introducing strikers Nacho Novo and Kris Boyd along with attacking midfielder Lee McCulloch with Darcheville left on field to get an equaliser.

That almost came two minutes into injury time when Zenit again struggled to clear from a dead ball as a Barry Ferguson throw-in fell to the feet of Spanish striker Novo who shot over the crossbar from just six yards, to the agony of the Gers players and pensive fans.

Scottish hearts were broken in the fourth minute of injury time when Kim Dong Jin seconds after coming on set up Konstantin to score Zenit’s second goal with a tap in from just two yards and win the club’s first ever European trophy with the last kick of the final.

Zenit now joins CSKA Moscow as the only Russian sides to have won in Europe; CSKA won the same competition three seasons ago in 2005. Zenit can now look forward to playing in next season’s UEFA Champions League as UEFA Cup champions.

The Russian side will now await the winner of this season’s Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea on May 21 in Moscow to decide who will be Europe's Super Cup winner.

Rangers meanwhile will now continue their quest of winning the league and Scottish FA Cup to complete a Scottish treble this season. Rangers currently lie second in the league behind Celtic though the Gers have two games in hand, four points behind their bitter city rivals.

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