Glasgow Rangers would have been able to make it 2 Europe trophies for UK if they won their first European Trophy in 36 years. But they couldn’t capitalize after losing to Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup final.

The final, which was held in Manchester found that Rangers, who played 18 games to reach the final lose out at the last round to first time contenders Zenit with a 2-0 win.

Zenit had their goals coming from Konstantin Zyrianov and Igor Denisov. Team coach Dick Advocaat managed to pull one off his former club. If Rangers won this game, they were in place to go for the quadruple, but with the defeat, they are now resorted to shifting their drive towards achieving a domestic treble instead. So, similar to their neighbours Celtic who experience a same fate in 2003, they could not win on a night that was clearly belonging to the UK.

Glasgow Rangers had Kevin Thomson back in the squad after an ankle injury with Brahim Hemdani and Steven Davis playing in midfield while Jean-Claude Darchville was to be up front alone. But it was the Russian team that went on the offensive where Andrei Arshavin got a through ball only to hit the side-net. Darcheville pulled a ball from the left flank toward Barry Ferguson who could not finish. It was Thomson who then gave away a free kick where Radek Sirl nearly converted.

For quite a while, Rangers were not really pressing up for a goal while more action was coming on from the opposite side including an alleged handball that went unnoticed. The first half ended without much damage to both side.

Second half started and Rangers could have gotten a penalty, but was denied by Swedish referee Peter Frojdfeldt.  A goal would have resulted soon after at the Rangers end if not for Sasa Papac, who cleared off the line and in the 72^nd minute, Arshavin played one-two with Denisov where he converted the first goal. Time is running out, and Rangers turned desperate and Papac was taken out for Novo while Lee McCulloch was put in for Hemdani for the Scots to try for extra time. They then put in Kris Boyd in place of Darcheville but still no goals came.

Fulham has much to celebrate about after getting out of the drop zone. That is the agenda perhaps for the whole season or so. That is also even after that 3-1 defeat to Sunderland. Playing perhaps the game that could make or break their season, Fulham came up with a 2 goal win over relegation battle fighters Birmingham. And nothing seemed to be going right for Birmingham this very minute.

They would have been in a favourable position if they could just maintained their 2 goal lead over Liverpool at St Andrews a week ago. If that was the case, they could have come to Craven Cottage with a little bit more confident than yesterday. To say the least, they didn’t. they came with a little less than confidence and as such find themselves at the losing end. And as Fulham haul themselves out of the drop zone, Birmingham seemed to be heading the opposite direction.

Brian McBride and Erik Nevland were the heroes on a night when goals were as precious as the £35million that comes with being relegated. Even with such a good result, manager Roy Hodgson still need his team to get up and win their next game at Fratton Park against the Portsmouth team who might just be too distracted by their FA Cup final. He said that “We're not safe yet. We've been written off for a long time and I understand that because we've been at the bottom of the table for a long time. It's not been easy for myself and my players to consistently face questions like 'is that the end?' and 'are you finished?”

Things will have to be at their best, quality and form at least for the Cottagers and Roy Hodgson is no stranger to that. They have to win their last game in order to keep themselves up in the top flight, which Fulham has been for the past 7 years. Hodgson added that “To say the right thing and what you believe without making yourself look foolish is difficult. The atmosphere right now is euphoric and I'm happy about that because you need to take all the good moments that come in football. But it's not finished yet and the euphoria of this week could turn into sadness next Sunday if we're relegated. But if that happens, and most people thought it would happen long before this, then we will have gone down fighting and playing football. The players will have to be ready to play a cup final against Portsmouth. I'm just happy we've got the chance because after the Liverpool defeat it looked like it would take a miracle to survive.”