The champagne bubbles have barely faded away for Manchester United´s partying supporters, but the city is bracing itself for more revelry as Glasgow Rangers aim for Uefa glory on Wednesday night when they take on dangerous Zenit St Petersburg.
We all know Scottish fans are in the world class category when it comes to celebrating success but a win in their first European final for 36 years against the Russians will see share prices in the local Boddington´s brewery go through the roof.
And the good news for followers of the Teddy Bears (and also for local publicans) is that we fancy Walter Smith´s side to pull it off.
You could have backed Rangers at a colossal 50/1 to win the 2008 Uefa Cup with totesport in February, but for those that missed out you can still grab Smith´s side at 15/8 to win in 90 minutes.
Rangers have been teak tough to beat on the European stage this season. Since moving into the UEFA Cup from the Champions League they´ve only conceded a miserly two goals.
With a huge vocal backing at the City of Manchester Stadium - that will probably outnumber the travelling Russian support by four-to-one - Rangers will scarcely get a better chance to become the first Scottish club to claim a European trophy since Aberdeen won the 1982/83 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
But it won´t be easy. Zenit have beaten some great teams en route to Manchester - Villarreal, Olympique Marseille, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Bayern Munich have all been put to the sword by Dick Advocaat´s men.
If you think the former Rangers boss is going to stick one over his old club you can back Zenit at 5/4 to win in 90 minutes.
Despite Zenit´s classy route to the final punters should make note that leading scorer Pavel Pogrebnyak misses the game through suspension, he´s scored 10 goals for them in this competition and his absence is a huge loss.
Take the Gers to eke out a narrow win.
totesport have a host of markets available on this fixture including first/last goal scorer, half-time/full-time, overs/unders and scorecasts.
