Rangers’ hopes of a remarkable quadruple were dashed at the City of Manchester Stadium last night after a disappointing 2-0 defeat by Zenit St Petersburg in the Uefa Cup final.

Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyrianov scored the goals that ended the Scottish club’s dream of a first piece of European silverware for 36 years and left Walter Smith, the manager, to concentrate on trying to secure a domestic treble.

“The players gave us everything but I always felt that the first goal would be crucial,” Ally McCoist, the Rangers assistant manager, said. “In terms of the boys’ application we could not have asked for anything more. Now we want to win the league and we’ve still got the domestic treble to play for.”

While Zenit were given a fortnight’s break by the Russian FA, who agreed to postpone three of their league matches, this was Smith side’s fifth game in 14 days and their opponents’ freshness told. It will not get any easier for Rangers either as they prepare for another four games in seven days, culminating in the Scottish FA Cup final against Queen of the South on Saturday week, but at least Smith might reason that his team are unlikely to face as tough a test again this season.

Zenit may not have been the most impressive team to grace the final of this competition, especially when one considers that the winners for the previous two seasons were Seville, but the Russians were superior nonetheless and eventually made their possession count in the 72nd minute. Denisov exchanged a neat one-two with Andrei Arshavin, who had seen a curling effort cleared off the line by Sasa Papac moments earlier, before coolly slotting home.

Rangers had chances of their own, with Jean-Claude Darcheville twice denied by Vyacheslav Malafeev, the Zenit goalkeeper, while Nacho Navo spurned a glorious opportunity to take the game into extra time when he shot high over the bar from 10 yards out in the 91st minute before Zyrianov scored the Russian champions’ second goal in the dying seconds.

While Smith may well bemoan his team’s congested fixture schedule, few would begrudge Zenit and Dick Advocaat, their coach and the former Rangers manager, their victory.

They had entered the competition in the second qualifying round in August last year and Advocaat, who guided Rangers to a domestic treble in 1999, could barely contain his delight.

A domestic treble is what Smith will now have his eyes on. Rangers face Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday before playing St Mirren away two days later as they look to close the gap on Celtic at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League.

They will then play Aberdeen at Ibrox next Thursday before hoping to make it a treble in the Scottish Cup final, having already claimed the CIS Insurance Cup in March.

It was a carnival atmosphere inside the City of Manchester Stadium — the only time Manchester City supporters have been this loud was when they were protesting their support for Sven-Göran Eriksson, the embattled manager, during the final games of the season — although the scenes in the city centre of Manchester were very different.

Tens of thousands of fans who had congregated in Piccadilly Gardens to watch the game on a giant screen were left outraged when a technical hitch prevented the match from being televised. Manchester City Council provided coaches to bus aggrieved supporters to other areas in and around the city where the match was being televised outdoors, but trouble broke out as some fans demonstrated their anger at the unfolding chaos.