Rangers hand initiative to Sporting

Uefa Cup round-up : Rangers dreams of European glory this season took a knock when they drew a blank against Sporting Lisbon…

Uefa Cup round-up: Rangers dreams of European glory this season took a knock when they drew a blank against Sporting Lisbon in their UEFA Cup quarter-final first-leg clash at Ibrox.

The Portuguese outfit proved to be as difficult to subdue as expected and the tie remains very much in the balance after both teams failed to find the back of the net in the 0-0 first leg.

Rangers now face the daunting task of travelling to Lisbon next week hoping to seal a meeting with Fiorentina or PSV Eindhoven in the semi-finals, as they attempt to maintain an impressive bid for four trophies this season.

In Florence, PSV Eindhoven will be the more satisfied team after an efficient performance frustrated Fiorentina and earned a 1-1 draw.

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Adrian Mutu opened the scoring on 56 minutes, proving he is fit again after a knee injury sidelined him for a month, before Danny Koevermans begged what could prove to be the all-important away goal seven minutes later.

In today's early game, a superb second-half display from Zenit St Petersburg put the Russian champions well on their way to the semis as they hit four away goals past a helpless Bayer Leverkusen.

Pavel Pogrebniak, Aleksandr Aniukov and Igor Denisov hit three goals in 20 minutes after the restart to put the visitors in command of their quarter-final tie with 2001 Champions League finalists.

Stefan Kiessling pulled one back for the hosts in the first half after Andrei Arshavin had opened the scoring.