Rangers held to goalless draw by Sporting in Uefa Cup
Walter Smith would have wanted a first-leg lead
Thursday, 03, Apr 2008 10:18
Rangers have been held to a goalless draw by Sporting at Ibrox in the first leg of their Uefa Cup quarter-final tie.
The Scottish side had more of the possession and were urged on by a partisan home crowd, but they were unable to breakdown a well set-up Portuguese side.
Midfielder Lee McCulloch had Rangers' best two efforts on goal with a shot saved by Rui Patricio and then a header that went wide.
Walter Smith seemed to go for a cautious approach in his team selection, bringing in Brahim Hemdani to play as a defensive midfielder and employing Jean-Claude Darcheville as a lone striker.
It was Frenchman Darcheville who helped create the first good effort on goal when his surging run led to McCulloch having a shot from 30 yards which went wide of goal.
There were very few chances in the first half as the technically gifted Sporting side did well to scupper Rangers.
The best chance of the half fell to McCulloch on the stroke of half-time, as the Scottish international saw his low shot from the edge of the box brilliantly saved by Patricio.
As Rangers drove forward looking for the crucial first goal, they left themselves open to the counter-attack.
Leandro Grimi almost ran the entire length of the pitch before firing a shot which went narrowly wide.
The Rangers players seemed to tire in the last quarter of the game and almost conceded a killer away goal.
Brazilian striker Liedson had a clear run on the Rangers area, but the home side were saved by a last-ditch tackle from Steven Davis.