Rangers 0 Florentina 0
Posted on April 25, 2008
Filed Under Uefa Cup
Rangers will be pleased with the result as they held italian side Florentina to a goalless draw & didn’t concede an away goal.Florentina dominated this football match with lots of possession & slick passing but really didn’t create any clear cut chances on goal which Rangers were able to cope with. In the early part of the first half Mutu & Kuzmanovic could only fire in shots from distance but they were straight at the Rangers keeper Alexander.Rangers were playing like the away side & could only counter attack when Jean-Claude Darcheville who was playing up front on his own accelerated down the left but his cross was only deflected to the Florentina keeper Frey.
La Viola was pressing the Rangers defence & making them work when Jorgensen forced a shot which Alexander had to save.Florentina was worried though about Darcheville as a couple of times be spinned & turned & could have broke free but was fouled instead.Mario Alberto Santana was cautioned for his last foul on Darcheville as it was more like a rugby league tackle than a football one with the Rangers man now getting frustrated with all the close marking he was getting.Florentina was now getting restless with getting nowhere & just before the half ended Mutu thought he could cheat when he tried to direct a cross with his hand but the ref decided not to book him strange.
The second half started with Florintina in the same vain all the possession & getting no where & Rangers holding firm.So as the half wore on Rangers looked the more likely & started upping the tempo of the game.Novo got into the game more by failing to get on the end of a long ball in the box & then tried a cheeky 40 or so yard chip which went over the bar.Walter Smith then made 2 substitutions bringing on Thomas Buffel & Daniel Cousin & taking off Darcheville & Novo the crowd responded to give Rangers a lift & too see them press forward.
But it was Florentina who was making the most of the pressing when Mutu hit a great 30 yard free kick which Alexanger had to get down to his right to save.Time was running out & with 9 Min’s left Florentina subbed Pazzini with Chrisitian Vieri & his first bit of action was to fire a 25 yard free kick over the bar after it had bin deflected.Both teams then held out for a o-o score.
Comments
Leave a Reply
-
Sponsors
