UEFA CUP FINAL RANGERS v ZENIT ST PETERSBURG:They're not much loved, even at home, but, as Michael Walkerwrites, the manager has built a team who play for each other and can return 'credibility' to Scotland

IT IS NOT Seville, it is Manchester. It is not Celtic, it is Rangers. It is not Martin O'Neill, it is Walter Smith.

But it is the Uefa Cup final and it is an epic occasion on more than one measurement. Just as when Celtic reached Seville five years ago, and they took more than 70,000 to Andalucia, when the streets of Glasgow are walked tonight, they will be depopulated by as many as 120,000 of its citizens.

Just as it was Celtic's 59th game of that season, this is Rangers' 64th - and they have four more to go in Scotland. And even if Rangers lose to Zenit St Petersburg, just as Celtic lost to Porto, the memory of the achievement of an Old Firm club again being in a major European final will not fade quickly.

This is Rangers' first European final for 36 years and, against significant financial odds, Glasgow, Scotland, has generated its own feelgood factor these past five years. Yet as Pat Nevin commented ruefully at the weekend: "We continue to sneer at ourselves."

As a rational observer who has played the game at its highest levels, Nevin is worth listening to.

He is prepared to accept that his optimism is not shared by all in Scotland, but a season that has thrown up Rangers in a European final (one of four trophies they could win), a fascinating denouement to the SPL and a fairy-story Scottish Cup final appearance for Queen of the South should be celebrated.

Excitement is often mistaken for quality in football, of course, but Scotland's narrow failure to make this summer's European Championships from a group with Italy and France is further evidence of a recovery in national ability. Smith said yesterday that enhanced Scottish "credibility" would come with victory.

"Rangers reaching Manchester is the icing on a cake that was tasty enough following the exploits of Celtic and Aberdeen in Europe," Nevin said. "I bet AC Milan, Shakhtar Donetsk, Lokomotiv Moscow and FC Copenhagen do not think Scottish football is a joke, and France, Italy and Ukraine haven't spent much time laughing at us either over the past year."

The joke in Scotland is that no one has even managed a smile as Rangers have waded their way through Europe. Accused of "anti-football" by Barcelona's Lionel Messi following the 0-0 draw at Ibrox in the Champions League in October, once Rangers exited that competition and entered the Uefa Cup - in February - another four goalless draws followed in eight ties culminating in two against Fiorentina in the semi-final.

To Rangers' sympathisers, this is a sign of doggedness; to their detractors - and, boy, are there plenty of them in Scotland - it is dullness. The latter point to a mere seven victories in Rangers' 18 Champions League and Uefa Cup ties this season, and only 16 goals scored. In total, Rangers have 12 clean sheets.

The comparison is made with Zenit, who rattled in four against Bayern Munich to get to Manchester and who knocked out prestigious European clubs in Marseilles and Villarreal before that. Yet top-scorer Pavel Pogrebnyak is suspended and Rangers derive some comfort from that - even if their own target-man, Daniel Cousin, is also suspended.

Internally, the Scots are also relaxed about their style. As centre-half David Weir argued: "If a team can't score a goal against you then they don't deserve to win the game. I'm a defender so I'm biased, but there's a skill in defending. People are living in a fantasy world if they think Rangers can go out, attack and play three up front and be successful in Europe."

At 38 - it was his birthday on Saturday - Weir is one of the more remarkable tales of this Rangers side. Signed from Everton, where he had spent eight years, Weir was Smith's first recruit after the manager returned to Ibrox in January of last year. It had been Smith, as Everton manager, who had brought Weir south from Hearts.

It was a signing that revealed Rangers' lack of cash and Smith's willingness to operate within that framework. It has not been lost at Ibrox that the man guiding Zenit is Dick Advocaat, Smith's successor at the club and a Dutchman capable of spending chairmen's money at will.

At Rangers they reckon Advocaat spent £83 million (€100m) in 40 months - a nett spend of around a million a month when sales are included. At Zenit, the sponsors are Gazprom (market value €225 billion).

That lavish Advocaat spend caused his successors, Alex McLeish and Paul Le Guen, problems, and its effect was still being felt when Smith returned, having been the man who lifted Scotland from the free-fall started by Berti Vogts.

Smith (60), had been a hugely successful manager at Rangers first time around, but only domestically. Plus, he did have finance then, the scale of which could be seen in Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup playing in blue every week.

The contrast now is that Smith has to get the likes of Weir through the door, and yet the team is closer to continental glory because, as everyone agrees, Smith is a better, shrewder manager than he was, and because he has forged a team from parts rather than a collection from big names.

"I've played in loads of good teams, but spirit-wise and for a will to win this side is the best I've been involved in," said Rangers captain Barry Ferguson. "Why? The manager. Simple. Simple as that. Look where we were 18 months ago and look where we are now."

And where they are is the brink of history. Smith, having organised shut-outs in Florence and Lisbon in the semis and quarters, has begun to talk about a more expansive Rangers this evening.

"So far we've had a lot of negative comments about us," Smith said. "We've had a lot of situations where people say that Rangers play anti-football, rubbish football or whatever. But for a first-year team, we've settled in well and, for those teams that have lost to us, if they are that good, why have they not beaten us?

"Our approach will be slightly different. In our other games I make no apologies for being defensively based, but we know in a final you must threaten. We must be aware of that, you've got to extend yourself a bit."

Extended. That is one word to describe Rangers season and after tonight it recommences at Motherwell on Saturday, St Mirren on Monday and up to Aberdeen tomorrow week. There is then less than 48 hours to get ready for Queen of the South at Hampden Park. "Condensed" could also apply. Three more trophies is the prize.

But first Zenit St Petersburg, fresh from the cancellation of their Russian league games. At 5 to 4 to win over 90 minutes they look well worth a punt, but the niggle comes from the obduracy Rangers have displayed along the way to get to Manchester.

As they have bemoaned long and loud, Scottish football has not provided help in the manner Russia has given Zenit.

But Rangers could make Scottish football proud this evening, even if you have to be outside Scotland to appreciate it.