Rangers 0 Fiorentina 0:RANGERS MAY remain the lowest scorers left in the Uefa Cup, but they are also still genuinely in the hunt for glory at the City of Manchester Stadium on May 14th.
It was noticeable long before full-time here last night that both teams were content to settle for a scoreless first leg, with Fiorentina the latest and perhaps most illustrious side unable to breach Rangers' resistance on Glasgow's south side.
They are yet to concede at home in this competition and, with key players due to return for next week's second leg in Florence, Rangers will harbour genuine aspirations of repeating recent triumphs in Lisbon, Athens and Bremen at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Thursday.
This match, while engaging in spells, seldom burst into life, but that will not trouble the Scottish Premier League leaders.
Only the desperate interventions of Carlos Cuellar prevented Giampaolo Pazzini from sending the visitors in front within 13 minutes.
It took a sluggish Rangers 15 minutes to mount a meaningful foray into opposition territory but such ambition came close to returning tangible reward.
Jean-Claude Darcheville, the lone striker, embarked on an unchallenged, 40-yard run with the Frenchman's eventual shot almost sliced into his own net by Alessandro Gamberini.
That proved a rare early foray as the visitors dominated possession; even such scant reward as a throw-in was rapturously received by the home fans.
While Rangers displayed considerably more attacking verve in the first 10 minutes of the second period, the pattern of Darcheville being isolated continued.
Mutu tested Alexander with a cleanly-struck set-piece from 30 yards which the goalkeeper held firmly, before the Romanian striker passed up arguably the best chance of the match in the dying seconds by miskicking as Rangers failed to clear their lines.
Zenit St Petersburg will fancy their chances of reaching the final after drawing 1-1 at Bayern Munich last night.
Franck Ribery put the home side ahead in the 18th minute but Zenit deservedly levelled when Lucio put through his own goal on the hour mark.
RANGERS: Alexander, Broadfoot, Weir, Cuellar, Papac, Novo (Buffel 59), Whittaker, Hemdani, Dailly, Davis, Darcheville (Cousin 59). Subs not used: Graeme Smith, Boyd, Gow, Webster, Faye.
FIORENTINA: Frey, Jorgensen, Ujfalusi, Gamberini, Gobbi, Kuzmanovic, Santana, Liverani, Mutu, Montolivo, Pazzini (Vieri 81). Subs not used: Avramov, Kroldrup, Dainelli, Potenza, Osvaldo, Pasqual. Booked: Santana, Gamberini, Gobbi.
Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece).
