Uefa Cup: Van Hooijdonk fires Feyenoord through

Former Celtic striker Pierre van Hooijdonk came back to haunt Rangers as his two goals from free-kicks helped Feyenoord earn a 3-2 win in Rotterdam.

Their 4-3 aggregate sends them into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup.

In a dramatic second half which saw both sides have a player dismissed, Van Hooijdonk’s two first-half strikes proved to be just enough to keep Rangers at bay as the Scottish Premier League side poured forwards in search of an equaliser late in the game.

The first after 37 minutes was from a fairly central position. Van Hooijdonk fired the ball over the wall and beyond goalkeeper Stefan Klos into the right-hand side of his goal.

The second, just eight minutes later, was from further to the left but the kick was just as deadly, flying into Klos’ goal in almost exactly the same position as the first, although Rangers coach Alex McLeish will be disappointed that his side’s defensive wall allowed the ball to pass through them.

Rangers had taken the lead somewhat against the run of play from a free-kick of their own. Captain Barry Ferguson showed excellent awareness by darting the ball into the Feyenoord penalty area from the right after 26 minutes.

The Feyenoord defence were momentarily frozen as Neil McCann sped through to slide the ball past Edwin Zoetebier as the visitors took the lead for the first time in the tie.

However, their lead was not to last long, and on the balance of chances in the first-half, that was probably just about fair, although Lorenzo Amoruso had done well in the Rangers defence to deny Shinji Ono after 13 minutes.

That being said, the Japanese international should really have given Feyenoord the lead after just four minutes when he headed Robin van Persie’s cross over the bar from close range with the Rangers defence all at sea.

Feyenoord scored within seconds of the restart to make it 3-1. The impressive Van Persie’s shot beat Klos but rattled away from goal off the goalpost. However, Van Hooijdonk immediately whipped the ball across the face of goal where Bonaventure Kalou was able to head home past the disoriented goalkeeper.

At that point, it looked like it was all over for Rangers, but just as in the first leg, a penalty decision threw the tie open again.

After 54 minutes Feyenoord’s Patrick Paauwe was dismissed for a professional foul on Michael Mols in the penalty area. Once more, Ferguson stepped up and confidently placed the resulting penalty low to Zoetebier’s right.

What followed was 35 minutes of pure drama with Rangers throwing themselves forward in search of an equaliser and Feyenoord cannily trying to score on the break.

Van Hooijdonk nearly grabbed his hat-trick after 67 minutes when he headed wide under pressure from Tony Vidmar, but the game reached fever pitch when McCann was dismissed for a second yellow card after 73 minutes.

Van Persie’s chipped shot just cleared the bar after 81 minutes, but a minute later Mols should have scored at the other end when, with just the goalkeeper to beat, he blasted the ball wide from close range.

A minute later, Feyenoord could have made it safe again but Numan denied Van Hooijdonk again as he deflected his goal-bound header clear.

The final minutes were all Rangers as they won an endless succession of free-kicks around the penalty area but could not find the final ball to unlock the exhausted Feyenoord defence.

Feyenoord will now face the winners of Leeds United AFC’s game with PSV Eindhoven in the quarter-finals.