Rangers FC 0-0 Sporting Lisbon UEFA Cup QF 03/04/08

[Oliver_Kahn]

You'll play against Portuguese Sporting CP, the first match will be at Ibrox and the return leg in Portugal.

The winner of this match will face either PSV or Fiorentina, with the first leg at home for either Sporting or Rangers.

[DavidMc]

Not a bad draw. Will be tough but all the teams left in the UEFA Cup are good sides. Watched Sporting beat Bolton and they looked reasonably good. A bonus the first match is at Ibrox.

We always like beating sides that play in green and white

[DavidMc]

Rangers to face Sporting Lisbon

Rangers will face Sporting Lisbon in the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup.
Should Walter Smith's side progress at the expense of the Portuguese they would face PSV Eindhoven or Fiorentina for a place in the final.

The first leg of the quarter-final will take place at Ibrox on Thursday 3 April, with the return leg in Lisbon seven days later.

Rangers chief executive Martin Bain said: "We have nothing to fear and it's all about enjoying it."

The Ibrox club secured their place in the last eight after defeating German outfit Werder Bremen 2-1 on aggregate.

And Bain said Rangers were confident of going further in the tournament.


"Sporting are a club with a decent heritage and I'm sure Walter Smith will be taking them extremely seriously," he said.

"At this stage of the competition, all the teams are of a level, but we have had a good European campaign.

"We came up against the best team in the Champions League and narrowly missed out on qualification.

"Then we played the second-placed team in the Bundesliga and we managed to see them off."

Rangers were delighted to be competing for four trophies at this stage of the season, Bain added.

In the other quarter-final ties, Bayer Leverkusen take on FC Zenit St Petersburg, Bayern Munich face Getafe and Fiorentina versus PSV Eindhoven.

The semi-finals will take place on 24 April and 1 May, with the final scheduled for 14 May at the City of Manchester stadium.

[Oliver_Kahn]

Originally Posted by DavidMc

Not a bad draw. Will be tough but all the teams left in the UEFA Cup are good sides. Watched Sporting beat Bolton and they looked reasonably good. A bonus the first match is at Ibrox.

We always like beating sides that play in green and white

I think both teams are equally favourites for this one, I don't think (from what I've seen) that there's a lot of difference in terms of quality on both teams.

Both teams are very organized in defence, have someone that takes charge of the play (Moutinho for Sporting and Ferguson for Rangers), the finishers (Cousin for Rangers and Liedson for Sporting) and finally the wild cards (Nacho Novo for Rangers and Vukcevic for Sporting).

Not underestimating Rangers at all, but I think Sporting will come out on top. I'd say you win 2-1 at Ibrox and Sporting wins 1-0 at home.

[DavidMc]

V

Rangers 0-0 Sporting Lisbon
UEFA Cup Quarter Final
3rd April 08
Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

Rangers were held to a goalless draw by Sporting Lisbon in a tight Uefa Cup quarter-final encounter at Ibrox.

The Portuguese were neat in possession but rarely threatened and Lee McCulloch went closest to breaking the deadlock.

An opportunistic strike was saved brilliantly by Rui Patricio and an attempted header was deflected wide.

Rangers wilted towards the end and Liedson almost snatched a precious away goal with four minutes left before Tonel sent a header inches wide.

Rangers manager Walter Smith made two changes from Saturday's Old Firm victory over Celtic.

Brahim Hemdani returned to his midfield holding role in place of Christian Dailly and Sasa Papac was installed at left-back as Steven Whittaker dropped to the bench.

Jean-Claude Darcheville started as Rangers' lone striker, playing his first European tie following a three-match suspension after being sent off against Lyon in the Champions League in December.

The visitors started with a twin strike force of Simon Vukcevic and their Brazilian star Liedson. Sporting's green and white hooped jerseys ensured a hostile reception from the home fans.

But, as expected, they were comfortable in possession and took the game to Rangers in the opening minutes without really troubling goalkeeper Allan McGregor.

Darcheville embarked on a trademark run after six minutes, powering his way past several hooped jerseys, but when the ball broke for McCulloch 30 yards out his wild left-footed drive flew well wide.

Sporting were spraying the ball around with flair and imagination but Rangers chased and harried and eventually carved out the better scoring chances.

Three minutes before the break McCulloch spun on the edge of the box and pinged a right-footed shot towards goal, but Rui Patricio got down superbly to palm the ball round the post.

The next threat again came from McCulloch as he got above Abel in the Sporting box, but his header was deflected wide as the first half fizzled out goalless.

As the second half got under way Barry Ferguson's neat pass picked out Darcheville on the left and the Rangers skipper surged into the box for the return ball, but the Frenchman's cross just eluded Ferguson's head and the chance was gone.

Steve Davis ran onto another incisive through ball from Ferguson but his 25-yard shot soared over the bar.

Sporting launched a speedy counter-attack and Grimi galloped the full length of the pitch unchallenged before firing a vicious drive narrowly wide.

Papac curled a searching cross into the Sporting danger area on 68 minutes after Darcheville had spotted his overlapping run on the left but Grimi headed out for a corner.

McCulloch got on the end of Davis's resultant set piece but his header bounced harmlessly wide.

Neither side looked likely to break the deadlock, although Rangers introduced Nacho Novo for Darcheville with 20 minutes to go in an attempt to force a lead to take to Portugal.

As the home side tired towards the end Liedson burst into the Rangers penalty area but Davis's determined tracking run was enough to put the striker off and McGregor came out to gather.

Tonel's header then went inches past McGregor's left-hand post from a corner as Sporting finished strongly.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rangers: McGregor, Broadfoot, Cuellar, Weir, Papac, Hemdani, Thomson, Davis, Ferguson, McCulloch, Darcheville (Novo 72). Subs Not Used: Alexander, Boyd, Burke, Whittaker, Dailly, Naismith.

Booked: Ferguson, Weir.

Sporting Lisbon: Rui Patricio, Abel, Tonel, Anderson Polga, Grimi, Joao Moutinho, Veloso, Izmailov (Bruno Pereirinha 70), Romagnoli, Liedson, Vukcevic (Djalo 75). Subs Not Used: Tiago, Silva, Adrien Silva, Farnerud, Gladstone.

Booked: Izmailov, Grimi, Liedson.

Att: 48,923

Ref: Yuri Baskakov (Russia).

[DavidMc]

Not the best of games, however, Im confident we can get an away goal in Lisbon. We always seem to travel well in Europe.

We looked tired on Thursday night. Hopefully we can give one or two players a rest tomorrow against Dundee United. But three points in that game is vital.

[Oliver_Kahn]

Originally Posted by DavidMc

Not the best of games, however, Im confident we can get an away goal in Lisbon. We always seem to travel well in Europe.

We looked tired on Thursday night. Hopefully we can give one or two players a rest tomorrow against Dundee United. But three points in that game is vital.

Walter Smith played very defensively, which I honestly wasn't expecting, and I thought Sporting outplayed you in some parts of the game.

Now you'll go Italian style in Portugal, I think you can get a result there, because, just like Rangers, Sporting like to play against teams that take control and then hit them on counterattacks.

It will be a matter of who scores first in Portugal, that team will be the winner.