Smith calm ahead of final

Rangers play one of the biggest games in the club’s history when they face Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup final tonight – but manager Walter Smith insists he is taking the whole occasion in his stride.

The veteran boss, 60, has guided his team from the qualifying rounds of the Champions League to the group stages of the tournament, and then through the latter rounds of the UEFA Cup to finally reach the last two of the competition.

Dick Advocaat’s side are now all that stand between Rangers and their first European trophy in 36 years, but Smith insists he and his players will savour every moment of the clash at the City of Manchester Stadium.

“I don’t know if the UEFA Cup final is any more stressful than any other game that we’ve played,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s any more stressful than the qualifying games we had for the Champions League.

“I’m actually quite relaxed about getting to this stage of the UEFA Cup. We’re looking forward to the game and that’s the way it should be.

“I don’t notice any signs of strain. They’ve had a few days off now and they’ll be ready to go.”

Around 100,000 Rangers fans are expected to descend upon Manchester in anticipation of claiming another trophy in their quest for the quadruple.

Smith added: “It’s sunk in that we’re here. It’s getting to the stage where we want the game to start.

“It’s a big thing for any team to win the UEFA Cup and when you look back at the teams which have won it recently, an excellent level of team has won it so that would be a big thing in its own right.

“It’s not a thing that happens to Scottish clubs very often. It would certainly put us in the history books although we’ve already done that by getting to the final.

“But once you get there you want to do your utmost to win it.

“The players have never given any indication that they will let the opportunity pass them by. They’ve taken confidence from the European games. That doesn’t mean that everything will be just hunky dory in the final.

“We have a lot of problems to overcome because Zenit look as though they are a very good side. They pass the ball well and have good forward players. That’s part and parcel of what they do.

“But our players have handled themselves well in a lot of difficult circumstances in Europe this season and I think they’ve taken confidence from that.”

Rangers’ only other continental triumph was back in 1972 when they defeated another Russian side, Dinamo Moscow, to clinch the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Smith said: “I don’t think a manager has to tell the team about the historic significance. The team has worked very hard. It’s taken 18 games to get to the final.

“Really, if they don’t grasp it I’ve been wasting my time in the previous rounds.

“I don’t think there’s a great deal I need to say. They just need to play the game and the boys themselves will handle that.”

Smith expects his captain, Barry Ferguson, to be instrumental once again but insists this is a night where every single player must rise to the challenge.

“Barry has driven us on and for a player to play the number of games he has this season, at the level he has been playing at, has been fantastic,” said Smith.

“Along with the rest of the boys in the team he’s worked extremely hard to get here. It’s the final, it’s the big stage and they all want to show their ability.

“It won’t be down to one player and it will be the same for Zenit as well.

“It will be down to how the players themselves handle the game.”

Meanwhile, Smith has no fears about any of his players suffering racist abuse at the hands of the Zenit fans.

He added; “I look purely at the footballing side of it – the other parts that we read about about the Zenit supporters is a problem we have at our own club with the sectarian issue.

“We are trying to adjust that as well, I’m sure Zenit are trying to adjust to theirs, but I don’t see it being a problem to any of our players.

“It’s something that if it occurs they’ll be mature enough to handle it.”