Rangers, Sporting Lisbon advance to quarterfinals

BEIJING, March 14 -- Rangers lost to Werder Bremen 1-0 and still advanced to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals along with Sporting Lisbon Thursday.

Rangers advanced 2-1 on aggregate, helped by its 2-0 win at Ibrox last week.

Lisbon beat visiting English Premier League club Bolton 1-0 to advance 2-1 on aggregate.

Rangers were lucky not to lose by more at Bremen. The German club scored in the 58th minute through Diego, who flipped the ball to the side to escape two defenders, then drove a powerful shot past Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor inside the far post.

"One, two, three goals, we had the chances, but we didn't do it," Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said. "The fact is, we aren't scoring those goals."

Bremen, which is second in the Bundesliga, dominated the first half, with Daniel Jensen and Sebastian Boensisch sending shots wide, Hugo Almeida heading over the bar and Markus Rosenberg forcing McGregor into a save. Tim Borowski also volleyed over from close range and McGregor stopped another shot from Jensen.

McGregor was also busy in the second half, twice keeping out Jensen and pushing a shot from Boubacar Sanogo onto the crossbar in the 84th. Bremen had 35 shots on goal to Rangers' four.

"I can't recall a match where we were so dominant, this was very unjust," Diego said.

McGregor was wary of Rangers' chances of winning the competition. The club also leads the Scottish Premier League.

"I don't know about that but Werder Bremen must have been one of the favorites and you can only take it one game at a time," McGregor said. "But it's an unbelievable spirit here and all the boys get on well. It's a great mix of Scottish lads and foreigners and the banter is good.

"This is massive for the club. Even at the start of the Champions League draw nobody expected us to get here. We've dug deep tonight and that's what was needed."

Rangers dropped into the UEFA Cup after finishing third in the Champions League group stage behind FC Barcelona and Lyon.

Sporting Lisbon had the away goal advantage against Bolton from the first-leg 1-1 draw, and made sure it advanced when Bruno Pereirinha curled in a shot in the 85th minute, out of the reach of Bolton goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi.

A minute later, Al Habsi tipped a shot from Joao Moutinho over the bar, and shortly before the goal, stopped a shot from Liedson.

Bolton rested several players as it juggled European play with Premier League survival. Bolton is the relegation zone in England and manager Gary Megson rested players such as Jussi Jaaskelainen, Kevin Noland, El Hadji Diouf and Ivan Campo for the Premier League match against Wigan on Sunday.

"It hurts a lot to go out," Bolton defender Gary Cahill said. "Every time we play we go out to win. We knew it would be difficult and they would have a lot of the ball but we are bitterly disappointed to go out.

"We had to go for the win in the second half but we got exposed, and it was a good finish. We are gutted."

Sporting Lisbon reached the 2005 final of the UEFA Cup, held at its Jose Alvalade Stadium, but lost 3-1 to CSKA Moscow.

On Wednesday, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Zenit St. Petersburg, PSV Eindhoven, Fiorentina and Getafe advanced. The quarterfinals and semifinals draw is on Friday.

(Source: Shanghai Daily/Agencies)