Fox Soccer Channel coverage of Serie A championship. The title race is down to the last round between Inter Milan and AS Roma. You can watch all the important matches on Sunday. All times are EST. Enjoy the show.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Zenit St. Petersburg confirmed their role as a favorite on Wednesday by winning the UEFA Cup. They beat the Rangers 2-0 in a match which they were dominating most of the ninety minutes. Zenit’s Denisov scored in the 72nd minute and fellow midfielder Zyrianov put one in at injury time. Zenit is the second Russian team to win the UEFA Cup in the last three years.

Czech international Milan Baros wants to finish his time with Portsmouth on a high note and win the FA Cup. He is on loan from Lyon till the end of this season. Portsmouth is facing the Championship team Cardiff and Baros and hopes to be a factor in Saturday’s finals and finally score a goal.

UEFA and the European Union launched an information campaign to help fans with variety of problems they may encounter during the UERO 2008. Fans can either go online: http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/ or use a free phone helpline in the EU (00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11) starting June 1st, which is available in all EU languages.

Celtic Glasgow’s former player and coach Tommy Burns died Thursday after a fight with skin cancer. He played for Celtic between 1975-89 and was the coach there for three years. He took leave from his coaching position early this year to fight the disease. He was 51 years old.

Bayern Munich goalie Oliver Kahn is retiring from soccer and will play his last game on Saturday against Hertha Berlin. It will be his 557th Bundesliga game, a record for goalkeeper. Kahn also played 86 caps and was voted the world best goalkeeper of the year three times.

Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand extended his contract with the club till 2013. Ferdinand joined Manchester in 2002 from Leeds for a record breaking fee of 33 million British pounds. He said “It is a great honor to be part of this trophy winning team and to share in the success, which I am sure will continue for many season to come.”

Many Czech fans were hoping for Juventus’ Pavel Nedved’s return to the national team for the EURO 2008. Today’s nomination by coach Karel Bruckner left him out because Nedved decided not to play. He would have been a good replacement for the injured captain Tomas Rosicky.

Despite the fact that only 13,000 Scottish fans have tickets for tonight’s UEFA Cup finals, close to 100,000 of them arrived in Manchester City. Many fans were trying to get the tickets on the street where the going rate was close to 3000 dollars. Manchester City set up three fan zones where fans can watch the game on giant screens.

Barcelona striker Lionel Messi denied rumors about him moving to Chelsea. “I am a Barcelona player and this is what matters the most,” Messi told the Spanish radio La Red. He signed a contract which will keep him in Barcelona till 2014.

LA Galaxy lost to Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 in a friendly game on Tuesday. Alan Gordon’s header in the 43rd minute from David Beckham’s pass tied the match. Beckham had an another great opportunity with a 30 yard free kick but the shot missed the post by a few inches. Galaxy was without their leading scorer Landon Donovan who stayed home with a calf injury.

Tottenham’s former coach Martin Jol became the new coach of the Bundesliga team Hamburger SV. Their present coach Huub Stevens is leaving to be closer to his ailing wife in Holland. Martin Jol is a former professional soccer player who spent some time playing in England, but finished his playing days in native Holland.

Today’s EUFA Cup finals may be a little nostalgic for Zenit’s coach Dick Advocaat. He was the Rangers coach from 1998 to 2001 and won the Scottish Football Writer’s manager of the year award. He said”It is important that I don’t become emotional.”

Today the UEFA Cup will see the Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg taking on the Glasgow Rangers in Manchester City, England.

The Rangers started their journey in the Champions League second leg qualifying round and ended up 10 months later in the UEFA Cup finals. The team has been struggling with scoring goals lately, but rediscovered their scoring touch with a 3-1 victory over Dundee United last weekend.

Good news is also the return of DaMarcus Beasley after being out for five and half months and Lee McCulloch’s miraculous recovery from ankle injury. Coach Walter Smith has at his disposal one of the strongest defenses in all the Cup’s competition. He said that winning the Cup would be the pinnacle of his long career.

Having to travel only 200 miles the Rangers can take advantage of the fact that playing in Manchester will give them a home like feel. One hundred thousand Ranger fans are expected to come to Manchester despite the fact only 15,000 fans are holding the tickets.

The City of Manchester Stadium will welcome the Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg as a favorite. Beating European super club Bayern Munich 5-1 on aggregate shows that the Russian club has what it takes to be the next UEFA Cup champ.

The big question is how much they will miss their top scorer Pavel Pogrebnyak. He won’t be playing in the finals because of his booking in the second leg of the semi-finals against Bayern.

Zenit’s coach Dick Advocaat said that Pobrebnyak’s absence is lost but they can find a worthy substitute for him. Advocaat will have at his disposal almost a full strength squad with Radek Sirl, Andrei Arshavin and Fernando Ricksen coming back from suspensions. Zenit was given a break from the Russian league to rest for this important match. The team went to the Netherlands to practice and make themselves ready for tomorrow.

Zenit will have to overcome the Rangers defense who allowed only two goals on the way to Wednesday’ finals.

The match will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel on May 14 at 2:30 pm EST.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Manchester United recorded their 17th league title on Sunday, finishing two points ahead of the second place Chelsea. Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 41st goal of the season and was voted United’s Player of the Year. Alex Ferguson became the most successful coach in English soccer history with 10 Premier League titles under his belt.

LA Galaxy lost to the NY Red Bulls at home, in a match where David Beckham had a couple of free kicks but couldn’t score. Galaxy tied the match in the 77th minute but New York answered back immediately with Juan Pablo Angel’s goal a minute later. Los Angeles coach Ruud Gullit was disappointed with the way the team started the match.

Porto’s defender Jose Bosingwa signed with Chelsea for a reported 31.75 million dollar transfer fee. The 25 year old Portugal international is regarded by many as one of the best right backs in Europe. He was born in the Congo and played in Boavista F.C. before joining Porto in 2003.

The Czech Gambrinus Liga title will be decided in the last round between bitter city rivals Sparta Prague and Slavia Prague. Sparta lost it’s second home match in a row on Sunday and fell two points behind Slavia. If Slavia win, it will be their first title since 1996.

France’s Player of the Year award went to the 20 year old French international Karim Benzema. The Lyon’s striker has scored 23 goals in Ligue 1 and Champions League this season. “I never dreamt I would win this trophy, but I am absolutely delighted,” he said.

AC Milan just announced that the Brazilian striker Kaka extended his contract with the club till 2013. Kaka signed with Milan back in 2003. He is a devout evangelical Christian who wants to became a minister after his soccer career is over.

Standings in Premier League, Primera Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 after weekend’s matches. The French Championship will be decided on the last day of the season between Lyon and Bordeaux. The same thing is going on in Serie A where the race will go down to the wire between Inter Milan and AS Roma next weekend.

CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER

Sunday’s match between Tottenham and Liverpool will be a possible farewell for several Tottenham players. Radek Cerny, Pascal Chimbonda, Ricardo Rocha, Paul Robinson and Dimitar Berbatov may be gone during the summer transfer window. Totenham’s coach Juan de Ramos would love to keep Berbatov in the club, but there is high demand for this player at major European clubs and he will most likely leave.

FC Porto was deducted six points on Friday as a result of trying to bribe referees during 2003-2004 season. Porto’s chairman Jorge Pinto de Costa was banned from the bench for two years. Also involved in this scandal was Boavista which was dropped to the second division and Leiria who was fined $62,000 dollars.

Bad news hit the Czech national team just weeks before the EURO 2008. Their captain Tomas Rosicky will have surgery next week to fix his hamstring problems and the recovery will take at least two months. According to soccer experts Rosicky will be hard to replace even with Pavel Nedved, who is deciding whether to return to the national team.

It’s official, Frank Rijkaard was fired after Barcelona’s second year in row without any kind of trophy. Rijkaard’s replacement is former Barcelona captain and present coach of their B team Pep Guardiola. Barcelona is in third place with 17 points behind Real Madrid with whom they lost 4-1 on Wednesday.

D.C. United lost to Chicago Fire on Thursday in what was D.C.’s fourth loss in their last five matches. Chicago opened the score with Justin Mapp’s goal in the 38th minute and Cuauhtemoc Blanco added one in the 62nd minute. This is Fire’s best start ever and with this win they moved to first place in the Eastern Conference.

AS Roma will meet Inter Milan in the final of the Italian Cup. Roma advanced there by a draw with Catania. In the 1-1 match Roma took the lead by a penalty kick but Catania tied two minutes later with a free kick. It’s a repeat of last year’s final when Roma defeated Inter.

Fox Soccer Channel schedule for English Premier League and Italian Serie A matches. All times are EST. Enjoy the show.