Dick Advocaat urged Rangers to respond from their UEFA Cup defeat with the considerable consolation of the domestic treble.

The Zenit St Petersburg manager expressed his disappointment that European distinction eluded him during his four-year association with Rangers. None the less, after celebrating Zenit's 2-0 win, he paid tribute to Walter Smith's success on a shoestring budget compared with the millions lavished on the Russian champions by their owners, Gazprom.

"I am still close to Rangers and wanted to do the same thing for them and chairman David Murray, but it wasn't possible," said Advocaat.

"If they go on to win the title and the Scottish Cup with a squad of only 20 players, then that is a big consolation."

"We had to remain organised because Rangers were capable of scoring but we scored two beautiful goals and deserved to win."

Predictably, Russia's politicians sought to make capital from the victory. Advocaat revealed afterwards that he and his players had received a congratulatory phonecall from the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, inside the dressing room.

Zenit, who are supported by Andrei Medvedev, the Russian president, and became only the second team from the country to win a European trophy, were also congratulated by the former prime minister, Viktor Zubkov.

Advocaat added: "Winning a prize like this doesn't come often in life.

I am very happy and very proud to we have won. After the way we have played in this tournament we have really deserved this."

The teetotal Dutchman also had to dodge a champagne soaking from his celebrating players. He added: "The players tried to throw the champagne over my head afterwards but I was too quick."

The 60-year-old admitted he now faces a struggle to hang on to his best players, such as man of the match Andrei Arshavin - he lost Martin Skrtel to Liverpool in the January transfer window.

Arshavin has been linked most recently with a move to Manchester City and Advocaat fears it is inevitable that the playmaker and others - such as Igor Denisov, Pavel Pogrebrnyak and Radek Sirl - will make big-money moves to western European, off the back of the UEFA Cup win.

He added: "That will happen, I have no doubts about that and we will have to start again. That is the problem if you become successful - such as happened with Skrtel sold to Liverpool. We have to keep those players to become a better team.

"It's not only Arshavin - other players also who are very important for this team - and we need to try to buy three or four others to make the squad better and rotate a little bit. Only 12 or 13 players played in almost all the games and that's difficult."

In terms of the match, Advocaat insisted the Russians had deserved to win what is the first European trophy of his long career.

"It was important to keep organised and in the second half it opened up and we scored two brilliant goals. Over 90 minutes we were the better team and deserved to win. I have won many championships but never the UEFA Cup before so now it's almost everything."