LORENZO AMORUSO, the Rangers defender, plays the game hard and fair . . . and talks a similar game. He was in honest form again yesterday as he talked of the hurt he and his team-mates feel at seeing Dutch side Feyenoord reach the final of the UEFA Cup this week.
The reason for such pain, of course, is the fact that Rangers were beaten 4-3 on aggregate over two legs by the same team in the fourth round after serious damage inflicted by former Celtic striker Pierre van Hooijdonk.
Like virtually all Rangers fans, Amoruso felt the Ibrox side should have won that tie - and that makes the subsequent success of van Hooijdonk's team, who beat fellow Dutchmen PSV Eindhoven in the quarter-finals, all the more difficult to swallow.
''I am not sure whether I feel angry or disillusioned,'' he said. ''Not for the first time we were knocked out, despite being a far better team than Feyneoord. Against Bayern Munich, we should have come through, and against Monaco and Galatasaray it should have been victories for us. What happened in those games was exactly what happened against Feyenoord.''
The agonies of going close clearly torture the Italian, who has had big expectations each time his team have gone into Europe.
''You think it is a little gap between us and them, but maybe it is not so little. We are capable of making many chances but just not good enough to take them.''
To emphasise his point, Amoruso recalled watching the video tape of the league game against Hibs at Easter Road before Alex McLeish took over.
''Strikers have to be greedy - it is a quality. We need our strikers to take 50%-60% of chances, like Ally McCoist did. I only played a few games with him but you could see he came alive in the penalty box. Italian striker Inzaghi is like that. He can be out of a game and then suddenly he appears to score.''
How this will go down with Tore Andre Flo, Shota Averladze, Claudio Caniggia, and Billy Dodds is unknown, but Amoruso is big enough to look after himself.
Meanwhile, Craig Moore is likely to be fit for the Tennent's Scottish Cup final on May 4 after making a speedy recovery from a hamstring injury.
''He will join the rest of the squad in training next week,'' said the manager.
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