Since Steven Gerrard arrived at Rangers, there is one thing that the club has got over Celtic.
European football into the knockout stages has become the norm at Ibrox, it might be on a Thursday night, however, Philippe Clement has continued the trend with the domestic form cheating a top eight place in the Europa League table.
It is now all on the Rangers manager to produce something special if Scottish football is to continue to enjoy the luxuries that they have on the continent of the last few seasons.
It’s all on Rangers for Scottish coefficient chances
Celtic’s dramatic exit at the hands of Bayern Munich might have been hilarious after being so, so brave, but it has a knock on effect.
Scotland is currently ranked 14th in Europe’s coefficient table.
To keep an automatic spot in the Champions League, 12th place is the minimum position needed.
Unfortunately, the countries around Scotland still have a great chance of picking up more points.
Greece (11th) have three teams left, Norway (12th) two, Austria (13th) have one and in 15th place, Denmark have two.
To secure 12th place, according to Scotland’s Coefficient on X, all of these countries would have to exit the various competitions this week and Rangers would have to do deep into the Europa League – again.
Rangers are already looking at other results for next season with the Scottish Premiership title all but certain to stay in the east end of Glasgow.
What does the Champions League look like for Rangers in 2025/26?
As things stand, Clement would have to navigate his side past two qualifying rounds and a play-off round to make the group stages of the Champions League.
In qualifying round three, any slip ups would see no European football at all with no safety net and a black hole of £20m to fill.
However, if the winner of the Europa League is a team that has already qualified for the Champions League through their domestic league, then, Rangers get lucky.
Were Rangers in the position to win the Scottish Premiership, automatic qualification to the group stages is possible due to the lofty coefficient ranking, for perspective, Celtic will need to qualify next season, winning the league is no longer enough for them.
This same coefficient ranking benefits the Light Blues when it comes to seeding and a promotion to QR3 is on the cards if a team like Eintracht Frankfurt wins the Europa League.
Celtic won just three games against the teams ranked 32nd, 35th and 36th in the Champions League to land around £40m.
Six games, or four games, stand between Rangers and the promised land, unless of course, something special happens in Bilbao on the 21st May.
