Rangers Champions League qualifying campaign will kick-off at the beginning of August with the competitng teams now set.
Should Michael Beale guide us through the two rounds, he will want to avoid a repeat of the group Giovanni van Bronckhorst was dealt last season – a squad with a clean bill of health would be nice too.
There are a few big guns missing from the 2023/24 tournament, most notably, two of our group stage opponents from last season – Liverpool and Ajax.
Maybe, dropping into the Europa League isn’t such a good idea after all.
If Rangers make it into the group stages again following the winner-takes-all £30m play-off, pot three awaits which, you would think might make our group a little easier?
Well, it might.
Who could Rangers draw if they make the Champions League group stages?
Using UEFA’s coefficient rankings, these are the highest rated teams to have made it into next year’s tournament.
Wait until you see the worst group that we could get, however, let’s start with the good news.
A favourable draw could see Feyenoord or Benfica from pot one, two teams that we have competed with in the not-too-distant past.
Tough opposition, but far from the strongest in the competition.
Pot two, again, could throw up familiar foes in RB Leipzig, Porto and Borussia Dortmund but a trip to Old Trafford wouldn’t be refused either.
Finally, pot four would have no fears with Newcastle United, perhaps, being the one that we would want to avoid on paper, even if it would be a good trip in terms of rest/recovery for the players.
Taking everything into consideration, this is the dream group:
- Feyenoord
- RB Leipzig
- Rangers
- Copenhagen
No long trips, no excessive temperatures one way or the other and all winnable ties to give us a chance of progression.
As for the nightmare scenario…
- Man City
- Real Madrid
- Rangers
- Galatasaray
It might not be as hard a group as last season, but a trip to Turkey is never easy given the distance and potential weather conditions.
They have also strengthened considerably since we last played them and will be a different outfit to the one we faced at Ibrox in a one-off Europa League tie.
Having said that, we’d pretty much face a two-leg play-off for third place with Galatasaray to qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League.
Obviously, not all of these teams will make it through to the group stages.
Hopefully, we are one of them but, this time, lady luck is on our side.
