Wednesday, 14 May 2008

The UEFA Cup final


Tonight there is going to be a lot of excitement and noise around the City of Manchester Stadium (and not because of the local team). The UEFA Cup final brings together the two unexpected teams, Rangers and Zenit. (Who had thought it's not going to be Fiorentina and Bayern Munich at the final?).
Zenit st. Petersburg is no longer considered as a surprise package. You can go out and ask Michael Skibbe and Ottmar Hitzfeld who were soundly beaten by the Russian outfit. Not many know that Zenit is the richest team in Russian football and with money come achievement.
We are about to see Rangers tight defense trying to hold out Zenit free-scoring team while trying to develop counter attacks at the later stages of the match. Normally I would say such tactics are wrong since you can't hold a team such as Zenit for 90 minutes, but than again, Rangers have not conceded a goal in the competition for 8 hours, so the are doing something right. On the other end, if Rangers will try to go out and attack Zenit, I'm pretty sure they will lose the game.
BetUknow's community suggests the game will end in 90 minutes, giving a slight advantage to the Russians. Unlike the community, Zenit's top predictors put their money on the draw, as they predict Extra Time will be played.
Recent years have shown us that the UEFA cup final is more attractive than the Champions League final, but this year I think it'll be different. I share the feelings of Zenit’s top predictors as we are about to see a bore draw.

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