The
2008 UEFA Cup Final was the 37th final of the
UEFA Cup,
UEFA's second tier club
football tournament. The match was played at the
City of Manchester Stadium, home ground of
Manchester City F.C., in
Manchester,
England, at 20:45
CEST (19:45 local time) on 14 May 2008.
The match was contested by
Zenit St. Petersburg of
Russia and
Rangers of
Scotland. It was billed as a battle of Rangers managerial staff, with ex-boss
Dick Advocaat, currently the manager of Zenit, pitted against current boss
Walter Smith, who has had two stints as manager of Rangers, with both completing the Scottish
domestic treble; Smith in 1993, Advocaat in 1999.
Zenit won the match 2–0, with goals coming from
Igor Denisov and
Konstantin Zyryanov, to win Zenit their first UEFA Cup title, and make them only the second
Russian side to win the competition, after
CSKA Moscow in
2004–05.
The logo of the final shows a picture of the City of Manchester Stadium, created by English artist
Liam Spencer. It was unveiled at a ceremony in the stadium on December 6.
Route to the final
Knockout stage
Pre-match
Zenit and
Michel Platini asked the British government to ease
visa procedures for Russian fans, despite Russia having cancelled visas for British fans travelling to
2008 UEFA Champions League Final in
Moscow. However, the Director for British Visa Services for the CIS, Mandy Ivemy, said that "for the U.K. government, visas and biometric checks are a vital...
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