UEFA Cup Thursday Preview

By: Ian Rose | April 9th, 2008

Now that, once again, we’ve gotten the Champions League out of our systems, with one great game in England, and then that other one, it’s time to decide who will be the Final Four in the UEFA Cup. Here are the matches, and who needs what to progress:

Zenit St. Petersburg v. Bayer Leverkusen
Current Aggregate: 4-1 (4 aways goals for Zenit)
Zenit needs: not to screw up.
Leverkusen needs: an actual miracle.

Short of the skies opening up and heralding the second coming of Dimitar Berbatov for Leverkusen, this one’s over. Zenit did what they had to do in Germany, and then they scored two more goals. Their home form has been fantastic, and I can’t see them dropping this one.

Sporting CP v. Rangers
Current Aggregate: 0-0
Sporting needs: to stop overplaying and make it look like they’re interested in shooting. You know, someday.
Rangers need: to hold possession for more than 10 seconds running.

Now that both teams have had time to digest just how boring they were last week at Ibrox, they’ll come out and … well … probably be almost as boring in Lisbon. Neither of these teams showed much bite in the first leg, and both had basically one good chance all match. With Rangers’ tight defense and Sporting’s ability to dominate possession, the first goal will likely win this matchup. I just hope that first goal isn’t a penalty after extra time.

Getafe v. Bayern Munich
Current Aggregate: 1-1 (1 away goal to Getafe)
Getafe needs: not to get too purely defensive.
Bayern needs: to get over themselves and realize they’re in real trouble.

Bayern started dusting off a place for the UEFA Cup in their trophy case months ago, but Getafe might very well play spoilers for that predictable result, as they hold the advantage with 90 minutes at home to play. This is a team in the cup final in Spain, who has beaten three of the current top four in La Liga this season, including Real Madrid and Barcelona. They held an admittedly weakened Barcelona side scoreless on the weekend, and they’ll be full of confidence that they can do the same against Luca Toni and Munich. The game to watch tomorrow … along with the next one.

PSV Eindhoven v. Fiorentina
Current Aggregate: 1-1 (1 away goal to PSV)
PSV needs: to control Mutu and keep the sheet nice and sparkly clean.
Viola needs: early pressure, and to force set pieces where they can break down the stingy PSV defense.

This is going to be another good one, but more from a tactical standpoint than anything else. I really can’t see it bringing us more than two goals in regulation, and more likely one. With Roma eliminated from the European Cup, the Viola have all of Italy (except maybe Siena and Livorno) behind them to keep some hope of European hardware alive. A lot of that hope lies with Adrian Mutu, who has come back from injury seemingly stronger than ever. This one is really tight, but regardless of the away goal situation, I still think Fiorentina will pull it out.

It should be an interesting day. Scotland, Holland, Italy, Russia, and Germany are all out of the Champions League, with its distinctively tea-and-crumpets flavo(u)r this year, and this is their chance for European glory. We’ll have to wait and see.