Uefa cup final blog: "Fans are coming from all over the world to Manchester"

Walter Smith sat within touching distance of UEFA's famous slab of silverware and pondered one final twist in a tale borne out of fantasy, if not of the football variety.

The Rangers manager has become accustomed to snipes at his side's stylistic limitations, be they from learned contemporaries such as Louis van Gaal or mischief-making journalists from old Leningrad. When faced with polite enquiries that concealed the nub of the issue - will Rangers sabotage the spectacle of the UEFA Cup final against Zenit St Petersburg at the City of Manchester Stadium? - he responded in a fashion that will hearten the purists yet not compromise the foundations of Rangers' campaign.

Smith is poised for the crowning glory of a career steeped in silverware. He admits the dynamic will be altered, if not overhauled, for the one-off, winner-takes-all showpiece against Dick Advocaat's side, who have inherited the role of puritans since a 5-1 aggregate mauling of Bayern Munich.

Jean-Claude Darcheville will remain at the apex of a system that has served Rangers beyond all reasonable expectation, but the secret of Smith's intended success may be in its subtlety. Nacho Novo, a player of admirable but erratic quality, has achieved iconic status throughout the competition. He spared Rangers instant elimination with an equaliser eight minutes from time against Panathinaikos and scored with the crucial kick of a pulsating penalty shootout against Fiorentina.

"We have surprised a lot of people with some of the results we have had, maybe including ourselves; now we just have to come up with one more," said Smith. "We will have to approach it slightly differently to the way we have the previous games. There is an onus on you in the final to win the game but we will do so from a familiar basis.

"It would be folly for us to get away from the formula that has been so successful for us. The circumstances are often dictated to you. We went to Panathinaikos and lost a goal knowing that we had 40 minutes to keep to our system, knowing that a goal would be good enough for us to go through on the away goals rule. We made the late push and fortunately we got the goal for it.

"You do not get that situation in a one-off final so, at different stages, the requirement can change."

Ultimately, Smith's hand may be forced. Kevin Thomson, who has recaptured his snarl and snap, is a major concern having exacerbated a long-standing foot problem in the controversial 3-1 defeat of Dundee United at Ibrox on Saturday. If he fails to recover, the manager will weigh up the merits of deploying Steven Davis further infield, beside Barry Ferguson, which would facilitate what, in relative terms, would be the luxury of two bona fide wide players in Lee McCulloch and the impudent Novo.

The alternative is a familiarly robust midfield containing Davis, Ferguson, Brahim Hemdani and McCulloch's brawn over Novo's peskiness. Regardless of personnel, Smith has been heartened by the temperament shown by the unlikely heroes on the cusp of club history. Nerves, he insists, will not overcome his side.

"Has there been any indication of that this season?" he asked rhetorically, and no little pique, with his side still actively involved in three competitions on top of the earlier CIS Insurance Cup success. "They seem relaxed about the prospect, it's not something that should be any more stress-related than any other games in the competition. The most stressful games are the qualifiers. Once you get to this stage, you actually become more relaxed about it and look forward to it. They had a few days off midweek to help them. It was even more stressful for me because I have been moving furniture."

His flippancy punctuated a serious thread. "It will be a big thing for any team to win the UEFA Cup," he said. "Some excellent teams have won it recently and it would be a big thing for us in our own right. It is not the kind of thing that happens that often, so they will want to make history for themselves.

"They have done so already on the basis of getting to the final, but we want to make the most of it. It doesn't mean everything will be hunky-dory. There will be a lot of problems to overcome on the night, but the players have handled themselves well so far."

Contingency plans have been made for Andrei Arshavin, the diminutive playmaker who is subject of a £10m bid from Manchester City, while Rangers are well acquainted with the class of Anatoliy Tymoschuk. Having neutered Adrian Mutu and Diego, among others, on this UEFA Cup odyssey, Smith is not for fearing reputations at this late stage, nor is he inclined to offer a pre-match monologue.

"I don't think the manager has to do that," he said. "They have played 18 games to get to this final, so there should be no more words needed to motivate them. If they need motivated for this, then they must have been wasting their time in the previous rounds.

"We managed to work our way around quite a number of good players already in this competition and in the Champions League. We will have an awareness of where we think the problems will be created and we know there are one or two that we especially need to look out for, but hopefully we will be able to impose ourselves on them."

As UEFA clunked their way through the laborious Fair Play awards draw in a media centre which felt like a greenhouse in the Lancashire sunshine, Smith was deep in conversation with Advocaat over the commitments imposed on the teams for the competition.

Domestically, Rangers have overcome more prohibitive logistical problems but, until now, without any serious effect to their ambitions. Zenit's extended break permitted by the Russian Premier League enabled them to take part in a gentle warm-up against Van Gaal's AZ in Alkmaar on Saturday night. Rangers, by comparison, were embroiled in another tense league struggle, and the fall-out followed them to Manchester. "I am not going on about what has happened in the last couple of weeks: that's finished," Smith said sharply, lest the line of enquiry was pursued.

"It was difficult to concentrate on the Dundee United game. In fact, it was difficult for the staff, never mind the players. The UEFA Cup final has sunk in now and, to be honest, it started last week when we started detailing the arrangements for it. More than anything, we look forward to it and are at the stage now where we just want the game to start."

Rangers' destiny is imminent.

Zenit St Petersburg v Rangers
HEAD TO HEAD