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Slipperduke

The Camden Cad
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
4,333
Location
North London
Tired legs against fresh ones, defensive containment against attacking intent; tonight's UEFA Cup Final between Glasgow Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg will be a real clash of strengths and styles, but Dick Advocaat is convinced that he can secure a historic result against his old side.

The Zenit boss managed Rangers between 1998 and 2002, but he never had them playing the kind of rigid anti-football that has taken Walter Smith's side to the brink of a rare European trophy. The Scottish side have forced their to the Final, defeating superior teams like Werder Bremen and Fiorentina by refusing to offer their opponents any space at all and then seizing their chances on the break. It hasn't been pretty, but it's certainly been effective and you have to congratulate them for it. Rangers were falling apart under Paul Le Guen in January 2007 when Smith answered Sir David Murray's distress call and quit his position as the national coach to return to Ibrox. In under 18 months, the improvement is astonishing. Entertainingly, on the BBC webpage reporting his return, there is a message from a supporter saying, "Fans who think that Smith will wave a magic wand and bring back the glory days are deluded." But that's exactly what he's done.

Advocaat has enjoyed similar success at Zenit, but playing a much more expansive entertaining style of football. The Russian side won their first ever league title this year and will make their Champions League bow next season. In Andrei Arshavin they have their own version of Steven Gerrard, a full-blooded attacking midfielder who can make a goal out of nothing. They will badly miss the goals of Pavel Pogrebnyak, the competition's top scorer but, as the team displayed in their 4-1 victory at Bayer Leverkusen in the quarter-finals, they have firepower all the way through the squad. Russian sides are rarely considered to be the equal of the European elite, but like CSKA Moscow in 2005, Zenit are determined to break down those lazy perceptions and carry home the trophy. Their FA has been sympathetic to their challenge, allowing them to postpone domestic league games in order to prepare. Scotland's FA have done the opposite, ordering Rangers to continue a four-pronged trophy assault, regardless of fixture congestion

Regardless of that, only a fool would stake huge amounts of money against a Scottish side in one-off game. The national side proved that when they beat both Italy and France in the Euro 2008 qualification group. It's a peculiarly Scottish trait to take great delight in finding yourself out-numbered and out-gunned, something that probably stems from their historic victory against the English at Stirling in 1297. The worse the odds, the greater the potential glory. Certainly, they have all of William 'Braveheart' Wallace's courage and resilience, but it will it be enough for a similar upset?

Zenit absolutely destroyed Bayern Munich in the semi-finals, holding them 1-1 in Germany and then crushing them 4-0 in Russia. That's Bayern Munich, home of Oliver Kahn, Franck Ribery, Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni, by the way. They are highly skilled, unnaturally quick and very dangerous. Rangers couldn't have asked for more difficult opponents, but that's just the way the like it. Unfortunately, this may be too much, even for them.
 
I'm not supporting St Petersburg because of this article

Gerry Sutcliffe, the sports minister, yesterday insisted that Zenit St Petersburg supporters should be jailed if they racially abuse Rangers players during tomorrow night's Uefa Cup final at the City of Manchester Stadium.

McCulloch's joy at making Uefa Cup final
The Russian club were fined £9,000 after Marseille claimed that their black players had been subjected to insults from fans, who also 'lynched' a toy black monkey wearing a Marseille shirt.


Admission: Dick Advocaat said 'I would be happy to sign anyone, but the fans don't like black players'
Sutcliffe is determined that Jean-Claude Darcheville and DaMarcus Beasley will not have to endure similar taunts at the showpiece match.

"I've raised this issue with Vernon Coaker, the Home Office minister, and my message to Zenit fans is simple: come here to enjoy the game and you'll be welcomed with open arms.

"Come here to racially abuse black players and you will feel the full force of the law. Our success in tackling racism is based on a zero-tolerance approach and Zenit fans will need to abide by our tough rules."

Under the Football (Offences) Act 1991, racist chanting is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of six months in prison.

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Jim Duffy, the former Dundee and Hibernian manager has called on Uefa to take action against Zenit St Petersburg for openly adopting a racist recruitment system.

Duffy, who attended an anti-racism function with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street last night, believes Uefa should have removed Zenit from the competition.

Dick Advocaat, their Dutch coach, has admitted he would not dare sign a black player for Zenit, the only club in Russia who do not have at least one such footballer in their squad. "I would be happy to sign anyone, but the fans don't like black players," he said. "Quite honestly, I do not understand how they could pay so much attention to skin colour.

"Frankly, the only players who can make Zenit stronger are dark skinned. But for us it would be impossible." His admission disgusted Duffy, who combines broadcasting work with helping promote the Show Racism the Red Card campaign and who believes that Uefa must take decisive action against offenders.

"I was appalled when Dick came out with that statement last week," he said. "I assumed that Uefa would respond to it in some way but they appear to have just swept it under the carpet.

"Racism is something we're trying to eradicate in our society and football has its part to play in that. What he said amounts to a public acknowledgement that Zenit's policy is not to sign black players."

Duffy believes Advocaat, a former Rangers manager, should have taken a stand on a point of principle. "Dick has a fantastic reputation and he's taken the club to the Russian title and a European final, so he'd be speaking from a position of strength," Duffy said.

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"He's also a wealthy man, so we're not talking about someone who has to keep his mouth shut for fear of losing his job. Dick won't be short of offers whenever he decides to leave Zenit.

"It's hard to believe that someone who has worked with great black players, like Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard with Holland, would want to appease racists and fascists in that way."

Duffy added: "Uefa took sanctions against Rangers for some of their fans singing sectarian songs yet they seem unwilling to get involved here."
 
good point about it being swept under the carpet... UEFA needs to grow some balls about this
 
I'm not arguing with the sentiments here, but it will take some brave policing to deal with the Zenit hardcore - something not usually seen by British police at football matches. They are a very nasty and very well organised crew, Moscow is second best on and off the park these days.
 
Yeah, I saw this, but I wanted to leave it alone and wait and see if anything actually happened. I got stung once when I predicted racial problems in the Croatia game and nothing actually happened.

I believe Advocaat is now claiming that he has been misquoted, though I can't think of any logical thing that he could have been saying that could have been twisted into that!
 
Yeah, I saw this, but I wanted to leave it alone and wait and see if anything actually happened. I got stung once when I predicted racial problems in the Croatia game and nothing actually happened.

I believe Advocaat is now claiming that he has been misquoted, though I can't think of any logical thing that he could have been saying that could have been twisted into that!

He said he hated Howard from the Halifax ads and wouldn't sign him ever.
 
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