Rangers held to goalless draw at home by Fiorentina
Nacho Novo had the best effort on goal for Rangers
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Thursday, 24, Apr 2008 10:06
Rangers will need another good away performance if they are reach the Uefa Cup final after they were held 0-0 in the semi-final first-leg by Fiorentina.
The Scottish side, who won 2-0 away at Sporting Lisbon in the previous round after the first-leg finished goalless, failed to create many clear-cut chances in the game today as both teams played cautiously.
Both teams preferred to have speculative long-range efforts instead of trying to break the defences down. Spanish forward Nacho Novo saw a 40-yard chip which just went over the bar and that is really the best effort Rangers had on goal.
Rangers manager Walter Smith went with tactics normally used by away sides in Europe. The home side had most of their men behind the ball and let the Italian side have majority of the ball and Rangers tried to use the pace of Jean-Claude Darcheville on the counter-attack.
But for all their possession, the best chances Fiorentina could muster were long-range shots from former Chelsea striker Adrien Mutu and Zdravko Kuzmanovic which failed to trouble Neil Alexander in the Rangers goal.
Mutu was then lucky not to be booked after he was caught by the referee trying to use his hand to steer in the ball from a cross into the box.
Rangers were a little more adventurous in the second-half, but they still failed to create any good chances. Fiorentina were not much better in what in truth turned out to be a very poor game. Both teams will have to perform better in the second-leg next Thursday if they want to reach the final.