MOSCOW (AP) — British soccer reverted to the bad old days when drunken Glasgow Rangers fans attacked police and went on the rampage after the UEFA Cup final in Manchester.

It won back respect with the admirable behavior of Portsmouth and Cardiff fans at Saturday’s FA Cup final at Wembley.

Now comes an even bigger game—and even bigger test.

Manchester United and Chelsea face each other in Moscow on Wednesday in the first Champions League final between two English clubs. About 40,000 visiting English fans will test the patience and reactions of Russian security officers, who are known to take a hard line on unruly soccer fans.

The 10:45 p.m. local start time — the latest in the 52-year history of European club soccer’s most prestigious final — will give the traveling fans plenty of time to fuel themselves with alcohol.

The sight of intoxicated Rangers fans rioting in Manchester after their team lost 2-0 to Zenit St. Petersburg last Wednesday is likely to have worried those who will be in charge of security for the Champions League final at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.

Hurling bottles at lines of police, the Scottish team’s fans chased a small group of officers down a street and, tripping one of them, assaulted him and left him with a broken arm. The violence seemed inevitable, especially after one of the giant screens set up to show the game in central Manchester blacked out.

“In Manchester I saw what seemed like 100,000 [Scottish] fans, standing on all the central streets, running, drinking. Frankly speaking, I would not like to see this in Moscow in this way,” said Russia’s Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko. “I want it to be a celebration.”

It’s possible that the minority of thugs who follow Moscow’s soccer teams will go after the Man United and Chelsea followers. Mutko is reported to have had talks with supporters’ groups encouraging them not to attack the visiting fans.

But he also had a message for the English.

“We’d like you to also respect customs and respect the people who live in this city in this country,” Mutko said.

It’s likely the vast majority of the English fans will enjoy the occasion and concentrate on the game and maybe the tourist sites.

But English soccer has a reputation it still can’t shake off, no matter how hard it tries.

This is the country that exported soccer violence back in the 1970s and ’80s when English soccer became synonymous with thuggery inside and outside stadiums.

After a decade of clashes at World Cups, European Championships, international exhibitions and club competitions across Europe, English soccer reached its lowest point at the 1985 European Cup — later to become Champions League — final at Brussels’ Heysel Stadium.

Rioting Liverpool fans chased Juventus followers at the crumbling old stadium and, when a wall collapsed, 39 people died. UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, banned English clubs for all its competitions for what turned out to be five years.

By the time the English clubs returned in 1990, crowd trouble within English soccer had been cut to a minimum, largely because of sophisticated security operations and all-seater grounds.

When Portsmouth and Cardiff met at Saturday’s FA Cup final, nearly 90,000 fans at Wembley soaked up the occasion and winners and losers shook hands and applauded each other.

But when English teams go abroad, the potential for trouble always exists. Violence flared at the 1992 European Championships in Malmoe, Sweden, the 2000 Euros in Belgium and the 1998 World Cup in Marseille.

There are strong signs that English clubs, like Italian and Spanish teams before them, are starting to dominate European soccer’s biggest event—even though England’s national team failed to qualify for next month’s European Championship.

For the second season in a row, three English teams have made it to the semifinals of the Champions League. It’s the fourth year in succession that a Premier League club reached the final.

There were even calls for Wednesday’s game to be moved to Wembley to remove the logistical and security problems from Moscow. But UEFA sets the venues two years in advance and there was no trouble when two Italian teams, AC Milan and Juventus, played the 2003 final at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium.

But the shadow of last week’s violence in Manchester is still fresh and hangs over Wednesday’s game in Moscow.

The Russian police are waiting, and British soccer’s reputation, once more, is on the line.