Zenit St. Petersburg shocked Bayern Munich on Thursday 4-0 to reach its first ever UEFA Cup final where they will face Rangers. Zenit routed favored Bayern 4-0, winning the aggregate 5-1. Rangers defeated Fiorentina 4-2 in a penalty shootout after the teams played to a scoreless draw.

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"Zenit really played perfect today," Zenit goalkeeper Vaycheslav Malafeev said. "We capitalized on the chances we had." Bayern was expected to win, especially with forward Luca Toni returning from suspension but he missed a chance in the third minute to score and that seemed to give Zenit confidence. Just a minute later Pavel Pogrebnyak gave Zenit the lead with a free kick. Toni missed another scoring chance in the first half and Zenit doubled their lead in the 39th minute when midfielder Konstantin Zyryanov scored.
 
Victor Fayzulin scored early in the second half for Zenit while Pogrebnyak got his second in the 73rd minute. "Zenit definitely will be the favorite in the final," Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said. "The team that beats Bayern 4-0 could not be anything but the favorite." It may not be that simple for Zenit in the final because leading scorer Pogrebnyak will be suspended after he was called for a foul in the 76th minute.

Rangers is the first Scottish side to reach a final since Celtic lost to FC Porto in the Soccer Betting 2003 UEFA Cup. They probably don’t belong in the final but were lucky enough to withstand the attack from Fiorentina and then won on penalty kicks. The match was so dominated in regulation by Fiorentina that the shots for the match were 20-3 in favor of Fiorentina. "I'm lost for words," Rangers goalkeeper Neil Alexander said. "It was a tough, tough game. We were under the cosh and defended magnificently." Fiorentina so dominated the match that Rangers didn’t get their first shot on goal until the 77th minute.

Fiorentina should have ended it in extra time as well but Christian Vieri and Zdravko Kuzmanovic both missed. Rangers was down to 10 men for the last 10 minutes after defender Daniel Cousin got a second yellow card. In the penalty shootout Alexander was able to stop Fiorentina's third kick from Fabio Liverani and then Vieri missed. Nacho Novo scored for Rangers and they got the miraculous win. "That takes a bit of beating that one," Rangers manager Walter Smith said. "It was very hard."

The final of the UEFA Cup between Rangers and Zenit will be played on May 14th in Manchester, England.

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