John Hopkins

Dick Advocaat has predicted that his Zenit St Petersburg side will beat Rangers in next week's UEFA Cup final, as long as they hit top form.

The former Rangers manager pointed to their performance in the semi-final against Bayern Munich - a 5-1 aggregate victory - for evidence of how they can play.

The Dutchman was speaking to the media before his team prepared to leave Russia and head to the Netherlands for a friendly at AZ Alkmaar. Advocaat has continued to flaunt his love for his former club in the last week, but he revealed he can put aside that affection in pursuit of personal glory, and was not lacking in confidence about his team's chances of doing so.

"If we can play our game', then we'll certainly win the final," he said. "The second leg with Bayern Munich showed that is a recipe for success. Even though Rangers are famous for their good defence, I think we'll be able to beat it."

The absence through suspension of the centre-forward Pavel Pogrebnyak is an undoubted setback for the Russians. He is the tournament's joint-top marksman, alongside Bayern's Luca Toni, on 10 goals but Advocaat says his loss will not alter his gameplan.

"Zenit will play attacking football," he said. "It doesn't matter who plays for us in the final; we've beaten enough strong opponents to be confident. Pogrebnyak's absence is a serious blow for us, but we've shown we are a decent team and can deal with it when we are without key players."

The Turkish forward, Fatih Tekke, a similar sort of target man, is one of the options. Despite a £7m switch from Trabzonspor, and a glowing reputation in his homeland, he has yet to live up to that name in Russia's Premier League.

Defender Roman Shirokov told the Russian media that Zenit have yet to practise penalties in their preparations for Manchester. Shirokov, a midfielder-turned-defender, is aware of Rangers' defensive strengths, but is hoping to be spared a shoot-out.

"We have not practised penalties," he said. "We hope the game will be decided in 90 minutes. Obviously Fiorentina looked much better than Rangers in attack, but facing the Scots is still a tough task."

The penalty admission might come as a surprise. It is the means by which Rangers, as Advocaat surely knows, have won crucial games this season - against Dundee United, St Johnstone and Fiorentina in three different cup competitions - and it is not much of a stretch to imagine that it is a trick that Walter Smith's men are capable of repeating.

Although the Russian fans in Manchester will be vastly outnumbered by their Scottish counterparts, Shirokov is not worried by any advantage it might bestow upon the Ibrox side.

Memorable European performances in the current campaign at Bayer Leverkusen and Villarreal support that claim, but a wretched performance, and 3-1 defeat, in Marseille's intimidating Stade Velodrome, suggests a boisterous crowd could play its part.

"I don't think we'll have any problems with the fact that the majority of people in Manchester will support Rangers. Zenit have good experience of playing in packed stadiums. The first leg with Bayern showed we can cope with this. Anyway the game with Rangers is the most important in my life so far."