Advocaat's Zenit did it; now Hiddink's Russia can spring a European surprise

Published on Friday 16 May 2008 23:11

KIRK Broadfoot was surely overcome by the kind of disappointment that distorts judgment when he claimed that Rangers had played more accomplished teams than Zenit St Petersburg on their way to defeat in the Uefa Cup final.

That the young full-back seemed to be temporarily unhinged by despair was confirmed when he added that his team should have had a penalty kick when Barry Ferguson was tripped by the Russian goalkeeper, Vyacheslav Malafeev, in the second half, but that his own handling of a cross from Andrei Arshavin just before half-time did not merit the same award.

Had he viewed the match from the stands as a neutral, Broadfoot would probably have concluded – like the overwhelming majority of non-aligned observers – that Dick Advocaat's side's high level of technique, movement and, ultimately, deadly exploitation of space in their 2-0 victory made them clearly superior to either Fiorentina or Werder Bremen, the teams to whom he compared them unfavourably.

The overall impression of the match was evocative of Celtic's appearance in the same final against Porto in Seville five years ago. Despite a colossal individual performance by Henrik Larsson in the 3-2, extra-time defeat, and the punishing aberrations by defender Bobo Balde and goalkeeper Robert Douglas that proved so costly, the better team – as on Wednesday in Manchester – lifted the trophy.

Porto, it will be recalled, went on to win the Champions League the following season and Zenit promise to be very interesting contenders in their first tilt at the premier European competition, having qualified by winning the Russian league last autumn.

It should be emphasised, however, that the Portuguese club unquestionably benefited from the continued guidance of Jose Mourinho and Zenit's prospects of making a telling impact on the tournament may be similarly dependent to a great extent on Advocaat's involvement.

While planning the Uefa Cup triumph this week, the little Dutchman made time to publicise his ambition to work in the Premier League in England. The victory over Rangers, though, would help promote his candidacy more effectively than any self-advancing comments he could make to the media.

Of more immediate interest, however, is the presence of Russia at Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Despite the 30 million Advocaat has spent on recruitment at Zenit and a squad that contains Dutch, Korean, Croatian, Argentine, Slovakian, Belgian, Ukrainian, Turkish and Czech players, eight of the team who lined up against the Ibrox side were Russian. Of these, five – Malafeev, Arshavin, Roman Shirokov, Igor Denisov and Aleksandr Anyukov – are regular choices for the national team. The group also does not include Pavel Pogrebnyak, the prolific striker who was joint top scorer (with Luca Toni of Bayern Munich) in the Uefa Cup with ten goals and who missed Wednesday's final because of suspension.

Like Zenit, Russia are managed by a Dutchman, Guus Hiddink, and qualified for the forthcoming championship from the group that included England. At the finals, they have been drawn in a section that is unlikely to fill Hiddink and his players with dread. Their rivals will be the eternally disappointing Spain, Greece and Sweden, whose current worries seem to have been indicated by the decision this week to recall Larsson at the age of 36.

The European championship has a distinguished record in producing shock winners, Greece having been available at 80-1 before their success at Euro 04 in Portugal and Denmark having triumphed as unconsidered additional runners in 1992, their players returning from holiday beaches in time to take the place of the withdrawn Serbia as a result of war in the Balkans.

Surprisingly, Hiddink's squad remain freely available at 33-1, what is known in the racing game as 'a married man's price'. Bachelors are also allowed to fill their boots, however, and a little each-way is recommended to anyone not discouraged by this columnist's renowned deficiencies as a tipster.