By David McDaid

Smith has worked wonders with Rangers this season

You can bet that tears flowed along with the champagne.

Thirty-six years since their European Cup Winners' Cup triumph in Barcelona, Rangers beat all the odds to reach the final of the Uefa Cup.

No one could have imagined this at the start of the season.

Rangers mugged Fiorentina in the Stadio Artemio Franchi. But who cares now?

Although the visitors spent large periods of the game defending their penalty box, Fiorentina never really looked incisive enough to score.

It was a far cry from the first 45 minutes at Celtic Park on Sunday, where they had their hosts rocking for much of the half.

The Light Blues barely got close enough to threaten Viola goalkeeper Sebastian Frey but that is all academic after a nerve-fraying penalty shoot-out.

The whole Rangers squad can consider themselves heroes.

Perhaps Daniel Cousin is the exception for the foolish sending off that rules him out of the final.

Kirk Broadfoot was an unexpected starter after a nervy performance at Ibrox in the first leg.

The former St Mirren defender has split the Rangers fans, but he was solid in Florence.

David Weir and Carlos Cuellar were their usual dependable selves in the heart of defence.

And Neil Alexander, the fifth choice transfer target for goalkeeping cover in January, saved a crucial penalty.

But the man who must take so much credit is the manager Walter Smith.

His philosophy is a simple one - do not concede and anything is possible.

It worked for him as manager of Scotland, culminating in the 1-0 win over France at Hampden, leaving his successor Alex McLeish to take over a healthy set-up.

One thing that was noticeable about Rangers was their concentration.

When the opposition had the ball, they had a shape, they all knew what their jobs were and where they had be.

For 'ugly' or 'anti-football', read 'clever football'.

MY SPORT: DEBATE How do you rate Walter Smith's style of play?

They congested the route to goal, and frustrated the Italians who began to shoot from distance out of desperation.

No matter what happens in Manchester, Smith must surely take his place on the list as one of the best Scottish managers of all time.

In his first spell at Rangers he guided the club to seven of their nine titles in-a-row, and took them to the brink of the Champions League final in 1993.

He has won three Scottish Cups and three League Cups.

He took over a bedraggled Scotland squad, hauled them over 70 places up the Fifa rankings, and restored a sense of pride that the Tartan Army had lost.

Now he has done the same the second time around at Rangers.

He picked up the pieces from Paul Le Guen's short reign, as the team finished third in the SPL - a minor catastrophe for a club such as Rangers.

The Rangers team was full of heroes in Florence

Now they stand on the brink of an historic Quadruple.

Smith has taken his fair share of flak too.

A number of half-time and full-time whistles at Ibrox this season have met with booing.

Many Rangers supporters have been impatient with the lone striker system.

And they wrung their hands at the signings of veterans Weir and Christian Dailly, while fans on the other side of the city rubbed theirs.

Now Weir is an Ibrox favourite and who would dare question the efficacy of Smith's tactics?

The 60-year-old admits that the only blip on his glittering career, his sacking from Everton, has given him a new outlook on the game.

Whereas before he may have felt the strain of criticism, it now does not affect him.

All at the club have insisted throughout this European journey that the Scottish Premier League is their priority.

Smith's men must play eight games in 21 days but the boss has always maintained his squad will face more a test of character than of fitness.

Zenit St Petersburg and former Rangers boss Dick Advocaat will provide the opposition at the City of Manchester Stadium.

And with no visas required and only four hours by car or train from Glasgow, the Lancashire city can expect a mass influx.

On 14 May the blues may well outnumber the reds for a change.

So, Happy Mondays, the Gallagher Brothers, Mick Hucknall, Albert Finney, Nobby Stiles, Bet Gilroy - are you ready?