Tony Becca, Contributor

On WEDNESDAY, May 14, one week before the Manchester United/Chelsea clash for the Champions League football title in Moscow, Rangers of Scotland will be up against Zenith of Russia in the UEFA Cup final in Manchester.

Unlike the Moscow showdown which brings together two of the best and most popular teams in the world, the Manchester event will be, in comparison, a contest between two almost unknowns.

Going into the semi-finals, the favourites, the howling favourites, were Bayern Munich of Germany and Fiorentina of Italy and even after the first leg when Munich drew 1-1 with Zenith at home and when Fiorentina drew 0-0 away at the Ibrox with Rangers, they remained the favourites.

On Thursday, however, both teams were left licking their wounds.

In Russia, at the Petrovsky Stadium in St. Petersburg, Munich, the mighty Munich, winners of the Champions League on two occasions, were beaten 4-0 and in the Artemio Franci Stadium in Florence, Fiorentina were defeated 4-2 on penalties.

Played well

In a game in which they played fairly well and dominated play as far as ball possession was concerned, Munich, with a star-studded cast that included the likes of Oliver Kahn, Martin Demichelis, Ze Roberto, Jose Sosa, Frank Ribery, Miroslav Klose, Lucas Podolski and Luca Toni, were simply ambushed by a set of players who were determined. They ran the entire field for all 90 minutes, matched Munich play for play and, unlike Munich, grabbed every opportunity to score.

It was a lovely match. It was a match in which Konstantin Zyrianov produced one of the finest plays I have ever seen in a football match; one which I will never, ever forget.

After picking up a pass from Alejandro Dominguez just outside the Munich penalty area, Zyrianov, before touching the ball, dummied two defenders, sent them the wrong way - towards the left side of the field, turned to his right and, with no-one in his way, headed for goal and made it 2-0.

Shell-shocked

At the end of it, Munich were shell-shocked, and Zenith, on their way to their first European final, were in seventh heaven.

"Imagine, beating Bayern, and the way we did it," said mid-fielder Anatoliy Tymoschuk. "I could not believe we did and we made it."

Make no bones about it: although it was a surprise, Zenith did it in style. It was truly a well played and beautiful game.

Not so, however, the clash in Florence.

As it was in the first game in Glasgow, Rangers came out and defended from the first whistle. They defended for the entire 90 minutes of regulation time plus the 30 minutes of extra-time and it was so bad that during the second half when the television showed 62 per cent possession for Fiorentina and 38 per cent for Rangers, I wondered if in their calculation the statisticians had also counted the times when the ball was with the Rangers goalkeeper.

Football is a game of attack, it is a game of defence, some times it really suits a team to defend and, tactically, it probably suited Rangers to defend.

Winning at all cost

As a boy, I always heard about 'pretty lose and ugly win', I knew a lot of people who preferred an ugly win to a pretty lose, in this day and age of professionalism, there are more and more people - owners, coaches, players, and fans - who believe in winning at all cost. Despite the fact that football sells itself as the beautiful game, maybe that was why Rangers played the way they did on Thursday. Maybe it was simply a case that Rangers did not believe they were good enough to match strides with Fiorentina and beat them. Maybe it was simply a case that Rangers were afraid - deadly afraid of Fiorentina and maybe they were prepared to back their chances in the lottery of the penalty shoot-out.

Victory for Rangers in Manchester against the team that outplayed and simply destroyed Munich would be really unbelievable. Especially so if they attempt to do nothing but defend as they did against Fiorentina for 90 minutes, plus another 90 minutes, and plus another 30 minutes.

Alberto Santana, Christian Veiri, Adrian Mutu, Giampaolo Pazzini and Ricardo Montolivo of Fiorentina are good, and there is no doubt that. While they are good passers of the ball, however, Zyrianov's dummy, the play that dismissed two defenders and left him, after a few metres, with Kahn alone to beat, suggests that he is a player of exceptional skills - a player with the magic to open up even the best organised defence, even once in 90 minutes.