Zenit St Petersburg 2 - 0 Rangers

Zenit St Petersburg v Rangers: Preview

Updated: May 13, 2008, 5:54 PM UK

Rangers midfielder Kevin Thomson is rated doubtful for the UEFA Cup final against Zenit St Petersburg.

Thomson limped out of Saturday's win over Dundee United with a foot injury which is still causing concern and will be assessed after training on Tuesday evening.

Steven Naismith (knee) and Allan McGregor (ankle) remain on the sidelines, while Daniel Cousin is suspended following his red card in the semi-final against Fiorentina.

Boss Walter Smith has issued an eve-of-match rallying call for his players to make themselves legends by bringing the UEFA Cup back to Glasgow.

Rangers remain on course for a quadruple, with the UEFA Cup now arguably the most attractive of the trophies still up for grabs.

Smith freely admits to being surprised by his side's enduring continental campaign but having overcome Panathinaikos, Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon and Fiorentina to reach their first European final in 36 years the Rangers boss is looking for one last push from his players.

"Once you reach the quarter-final stage, you start to think about the final and realise just how much it means to everyone,'' he said.

"It starts to take over everything else and it has done for the last few days. We had a difficult weekend and had to concentrate on that match but now that we are here we will try to win this trophy on Wednesday.

"We started the Champions League section very well and managed to get a place in the UEFA Cup.

"After a shaky start against Panathinaikos we picked up a little and the good results since then have taken us to the final.

"The European competition isn't one that we thought we would get this far in so it's a nice surprise for us and hopefully we will do well tomorrow night and win it.

"Zenit have also had a terrific season so it will be a very difficult game.''

Meanwhile, Zenit St Petersburg manager Dick Advocaat insists there will be no racist behaviour from the Russian supporters.

Zenit's fans were accused of abusing Marseille's black players earlier in the competition and Advocaat, who was manager of the Ibrox club between 1998 and 2001, was quoted as saying he could not sign black players for the St Petersburg club due to racism among his supporters.

UK Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe claimed a zero-tolerance approach to the final would mean any racial abuse from any of the 9,000 Zenit fans towards Rangers' black players such as Jean-Claude Darcheville and Amdy Faye could see them end up in prison, and Advocaat assured Sutcliffe that he had nothing to worry about from the Russian supporters.

Reminded that he had allegedly said that he could not sign black players, the former Holland manager retorted: "I didn't say that!

"There will be no problem at all.

"It has become an issue and I don't know why. It is not an issue at Zenit and there are black players in Russia.

"He (Sutcliffe) must have other concerns other than football.

"This about a football match, not about colour.''

As the questions persisted on the subject, Advocaat lost his cool momentarily, saying: "I have already answered questions on that. Let's just speak about the football.''

Advocaat played down the numerical advantage the Rangers fans will have over their Zenit counterparts.

An estimated 100,000 Rangers supporters will travel to Manchester for the game with over 25,000 expected to be in the stadium at kick-off.

The Dutchman said: "All the Rangers fans will not be in the stadium.

"We have 150 million people back in Russia supporting us - including the president.''

Advocaat, who declared there were no injury worries among his squad, welcomed back Andrei Arshavin from a ban although striker Pavel Pogrebnyak is suspended.

"All respect to Pavel but I have to talk about the players who are available,'' said the Zenit manager.

"Arshavin is a quality player of exceptional talent and hopefully he can show that.''