 Match programme cover | |||||||
| Event | 2007–08 UEFA Cup | ||||||
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| Date | 14 May 2008 | ||||||
| Venue | City of Manchester Stadium,Manchester | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Andrey Arshavin(Zenit Saint Petersburg) | ||||||
| Referee | Peter Fröjdfeldt (Sweden) | ||||||
| Attendance | 43,878[1] | ||||||
| Weather | Sunny 16 °C (61 °F) 43%humidity[2] | ||||||
←2007 2009 → | |||||||
The2008 UEFA Cup final was a football match that took place on 14 May 2008 at theCity of Manchester Stadium inManchester, England.[3] It was the 37th annual final of theUEFA Cup,UEFA's second tier clubfootball tournament.
The match, which was contested byZenit Saint Petersburg of Russia andRangers of Scotland, was won 2–0 by Zenit, with goals fromIgor Denisov andKonstantin Zyryanov,[4] to claim their first UEFA Cup title, making them only the second Russian side to win the competition, afterCSKA Moscow in2004–05. Zenit went on to play in the2008 UEFA Super Cup, which they won after beating2007–08 UEFA Champions League winnersManchester United 2–1.
The fixture is notable for having the largest travelling support in football history, with close to 200,000 Rangers fans travelling to Manchester for the occasion.[5][6]
Zenit and Rangers had never previously met in European competition, although Rangers had played Russian opposition on 10 prior occasions, winning seven – including a 3–2 win overDynamo Moscow in the1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final – drawing two and losing one. Zenit had never played against Scottish opposition, although they had played in England three times, winning once againstBradford City in the2000 UEFA Intertoto Cup and losing toBolton Wanderers in the2005–06 UEFA Cup andEverton earlier in2007–08.
Rangers' European record was significantly better than Zenit's going into this match, having reached the final of theCup Winners' Cup three times – in1961,1967 and1972, winning the last one. By winning the 1972 Cup Winners' Cup, Rangers also played in the1972 European Super Cup, losing toAjax of the Netherlands, although this is not considered official by UEFA.
Rangers went into the final four points behindGlasgow rivalsCeltic in theScottish Premier League, albeit with three games left to play, compared to Celtic's one.[7] However, they had already won theLeague Cup againstDundee United two months earlier and were due to play in theScottish Cup Final againstQueen of the South 10 days after the UEFA Cup final. Because of the difference between the Russian and Scottish football calendars at the time – Russia operated a March–November calendar until 2011 – Zenit had only played six games of their2008 league season by the time of the UEFA Cup final; however, they had finished theprevious season in November 2007 as league winners, as well as reaching the quarter-finals of the2007–08 Russian Cup and beatingLokomotiv Moscow in theRussian Super Cup in March 2008.
The final pitched former Rangers managerDick Advocaat, then the manager of Zenit, against incumbent Rangers bossWalter Smith, both of whom had completed the Scottishdomestic treble; Smith in1993, Advocaat in1999.
TheCity of Manchester Stadium was selected as the venue for the 2008 UEFA Cup final at the October 2006 meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee inLjubljana,Slovenia.[8] Other candidates to host the match included theHSH Nordbank Arena inHamburg, Germany; theStadionul Național inBucharest, Romania; theRamat Gan Stadium inTel Aviv District, Israel; and theŞükrü Saracoğlu Stadium inIstanbul, Turkey, which was awarded the2009 UEFA Cup final.[9]
The stadium was initially built as the primary venue for the2002 Commonwealth Games, hosted in Manchester, but the athletics track was removed whenManchester City moved from their oldMaine Road stadium in 2003. The conversion increased the capacity of the stadium from 41,000 for the Commonwealth Games to almost 48,000. In 2005, the stadium was selected as one of the venues forUEFA Women's Euro 2005, played in five towns across north-west England. The only previous major European final held in Manchester was the2003 UEFA Champions League Final atOld Trafford betweenJuventus andMilan.[10]
Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).
 Zenit Saint Petersburg | Round |  Rangers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| UEFA Cup | Champions League | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Initial phase | Qualifying phase | Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 ViOn Zlaté Moravce | 5–0 | 2–0 (A) | 3–0 (H) | Second qualifying round |  Zeta | 3–0 | 2–0 (H) | 1–0 (A) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Standard Liège | 4–1 | 3–0 (H) | 1–1 (A) | First round | Third qualifying round |  Red Star Belgrade | 1–0 | 1–0 (H) | 0–0 (A) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opponent | Result | Group stage (UC,CL) | Opponent | Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 AZ | 1–1 (H) | Matchday 1 |  VfB Stuttgart | 2–1 (H) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 AEL | 3–2 (A) | Matchday 2 |  Lyon | 3–0 (A) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1. FC Nürnberg | 2–2 (H) | Matchday 3 |  Barcelona | 0–0 (H) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Everton | 0–1 (A) | Matchday 4 | Barcelona | 0–2 (A) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bye | Matchday 5 | VfB Stuttgart | 2–3 (A) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| N/A | Matchday 6 | Lyon | 0–3 (H) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Group A third place
Source:[citation needed] | Final standings | Group E third place | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UEFA Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Knockout stage | Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Villarreal | 2–2 (a) | 1–0 (H) | 1–2 (A) | Round of 32 | Panathinaikos | 1–1 (a) | 0–0 (H) | 1–1 (A) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marseille | 3–3 (a) | 1–3 (A) | 2–0 (H) | Round of 16 | Werder Bremen | 2–1 | 2–0 (H) | 0–1 (A) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bayer Leverkusen | 4–2 | 4–1 (A) | 0–1 (H) | Quarter-finals |  Sporting CP | 2–0 | 0–0 (H) | 2–0 (A) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bayern Munich | 5–1 | 1–1 (A) | 4–0 (H) | Semi-finals |  Fiorentina | 0–0(4–2p) | 0–0 (H) | 0–0 (a.e.t.) (A) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Throughout the season in Europe, Rangers had developed a reputation for being involved in tight games, principally due to their disciplined, defensive tactics which nullified opponents – scoring 16 goals and only conceding 11 in their 18 matches in the two competitions.[11][12] This approach intensified after dropping into the UEFA Cup, with none of their matches involving more than two goals; there were four 0–0 draws amongst the eight matches. This cautious tactical approach drew both criticism (for the largely unexciting and unattractive football which resulted from the tactics) and praise (for successfully limiting the opportunities created by their opponents, all of whom were considered to have more skillful, dangerous players than Rangers).[11][12]
Zenit were considered by the clubs of Western Europe to be a more unpredictable opponent (although not an unknown quantity, as they had reached the quarterfinals of the2005–06 UEFA Cup and had won the2007 Russian Premier League). In contrast to their opponents in the final, they scored 28 and conceded 15 in their 16 UEFA Cup games, which included impressive wins over Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich by large margins, but also defeats by Everton, Villarreal and Marseille which had seen them close to elimination.
For the past few years, like the Champions League final, each UEFA Cup final was branded with a unique visual identity. The identity of the 2008 final, unveiled at a ceremony at the City of Manchester Stadium on 6 December 2007, was created by Manchester artistLiam Spencer, who is known for his paintings of the Manchester area; the series of paintings produced for the 2008 UEFA Cup final combines inspiration taken from both the UEFA Cup branding and the City of Manchester Stadium itself.[13]
European Cup winner andManchester United legendDenis Law, who also played forManchester City was appointed as ambassador of the final.
Zenit andMichel Platini asked the British government to easevisa procedures for Russian fans, despite Russia having cancelled visas for British fans travelling to2008 UEFA Champions League Final inMoscow. However, the Director for British Visa Services for the CIS, Mandy Ivemy, said that "for the U.K. government, visas and biometric checks are a vital part of immigration policy, and we are not prepared to waive them".[14]
Meanwhile, there was a mass flow of Rangers fans intoManchester. An estimated 150,000-200,000 Rangers supporters descended upon the city, despite the club's official ticket allocation being just 13,000 and police requests for fans to stay at home. The influx of people resulted in there being no vacant hotel rooms in a twenty-mile radius of the city and the total amount of money that was ploughed into the local economy was estimated to be around £25 million.[15]
Rangers' home ground,Ibrox, was opened to show a live beamback of the match to 25,000 spectators. Fans were turned away when the capacity was reached more than two hours before kick-off.[16]
Zenit were without the competition's top scorer,Pavel Pogrebnyak, who had picked up two bookings in the knockout stages of the tournament and was therefore suspended.[17] However, they were able to call upon their other star names such as attacking midfieldersAndrey Arshavin andKonstantin Zyryanov, as well as holding midfielderAnatoliy Tymoshchuk.
Rangers managerWalter Smith started withJean-Claude Darcheville on his own up-front, with a five-man midfield supporting him comprisingSteven Davis,Kevin Thomson,Steven Whittaker,Barry Ferguson andBrahim Hemdani.Neil Alexander was making his tenth start in goal for Rangers following his arrival in January 2008, with first choice keeperAllan McGregor injured. Other notable absentees included right-backAlan Hutton who had transferred toTottenham Hotspur,[18] and forwardSteven Naismith who had sustained a serious injury.[19]
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Man of the Match: Assistant referees: | Match rules
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The event was marred by Rangers supporters rioting in Manchester city centre; these riots started after a big screen that was due to show the match had failed.BBC News 24 interrupted normal programming to broadcast the riots live on television[citation needed] andITN's flagshipNews at Ten programme gave extensive coverage to the riots.[21][22][23][24]
A Zenit fan was also attacked and stabbed, although it was later established that Rangers supporters were not responsible.[25] Eleven people were convicted of rioting and given prison sentences varying from six months to3+1⁄2 years in September 2010.[26]
