All Football

Rangers battled hard throughout

Rangers’ quadruple dreams are still alive after they ground out a goalless draw with Fiorentina in the first leg of their Uefa Cup semi-final.

The home side looked nervous throughout the opening exchanges and allowed their game to become fragmented with misplaced passes.

Rangers provided little in terms of an attacking threat during a lacklustre first 45 minutes, with lone frontman Jean Claude Darcheville looking increasingly isolated.

Their lack of forward thinking could even have seen them fall behind before the interval as Fiorentina created the best of the opportunities in front of goal.

Carlos Cuellar was forced into a desperate challenge to deny Giampaolo Pazzini inside the opening 15 minutes, while former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu looked a threat when he was allowed to run at the Gers defence.

There was ultimately to be no breakthrough though during the first period and the game meandered towards half-time.

Desperate

While the first-half had produced little in terms of entertainment, the second proved to be no better.

Neither side could be faulted for their lack of endeavour but the game lacked quality and a moment of inspiration to bring it to life.

Mutu came as close as anyone to breaking the deadlock 15 minutes from time, but his long-range free-kick was well kept out by Neil Alexander low down to his right.

Rangers continued to be let down by their delivery from set-piece situations as they eventually decided to settle for a draw and retreated further back into their shell.

There was a desperate late burst from both sides as time ticked away, but the match was destined to finish goalless and so it proved.

Rangers will be happy to still be in the tie after a tough night, and know a scoring draw in Florence next week will see them book their place at the City of Manchester Stadium for the final.

Rangers

Team Statistics

Fiorentina

0

Goals

0

0

1st Half Goals

0

0

Shots on Target

3

4

Shots off Target

2

0

Blocked Shots

3

2

Corners

3

19

Fouls

22

1

Offsides

3

0

Yellow Cards

3

0

Red Cards

0

70.9

Passing Success

84

12

Tackles

22

66.7

Tackles Success

81.8

34.2

Possession

65.8

45.5

Territorial Advantage

54.5

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