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'Committed' Rangers stars earn Smith plaudits

02/05/2008

Walter Smith was full of praise for his Rangers players after they earned a spot in the Uefa Cup final with a penalty shootout victory over Fiorentina.

The Gers kept their hopes of a historic quadruple alive by progressing to the showpiece match at the City of Manchester Stadium, where they will face surprise package Zenit St Petersburg.

In the shootout, Rangers captain Barry Ferguson missed the first kick to hand the initiative to the home side in Florence.

But misses from Fabio Liverani and Christian Vieri gave Nacho Novo the chance to seal the win, which he duly did to spark wild celebrations among the travelling supporters.

Rangers had been under the cosh for most of the match, and Smith said his players' commitment to the cause - in what was their 60th game of an already congested campaign - had been the key to their progress.

"Over the season, not just in this evening's game, for us to put together the team we have and achieve so much has been fantastic," he told the club's official website.

"From my own point of view, I thought I was at the stage where European finals were well past me so I'm delighted."

He continued: "We knew we would be under a fair amount of pressure in this game and in the matches I've seen Fiorentina play, they did that to all the teams they faced.

"When I see the level of commitment we showed to keep the game at 0-0, it was fantastic and I'm just delighted we managed to get to the final."

In the other semi-final, Zenit beat Bayern Munich 4-0 to seal an incredible 5-1 aggregate win that knocked out the tournament favourites in the last-four.