The last 16 of any European competition never has any easy ties and Rangers have learned their fate for this year’s Europa League.
The two ties will be played on March the 7th and 14th with Gers boss Philippe Clement enjoying the luxury of the second leg being at Ibrox after guiding a patchwork squad to victory over Real Betis on matchday six of the group stage.
Rangers have been drawn to face Benfica out of the eight teams that were unseeded in the last 16 of the Europa League.
Rangers draw Benfica in the Europa League
Whoever said that that the Europa League is second tier hasn’t been paying attention.
There are top teams from England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Portugal still in the competition.
In fact, the teams topping the Premier League and Bundesliga are still involved as is the team currently sitting just a point off second in Serie A.
The play-off round, in comparison to the Champions League last 16 this week saw almost double the amount of goals.
This, is the competition to be in.
Rangers haven’t been in this position since Giovanni van Bronckhorst led our run to the Europa League final.
We were also involved in a title race then but ran out of bodies and ran out of steam.
This season, Philippe Clement has to get the balance right and, at the moment, has a deeper Rangers squad available.
For example, there are players like Leon Balogun and Oscar Cortes who will play a key role domestically, who aren’t in the Europa League squad.
The priority has to be the Scottish Premiership.
The money available purely for qualifying for the Champions League determines this, nothing else.
As always though, you know that Clement isn’t going to go into the tie with Benfica half-hearted and that he will, despite the odds, want to win it all.
Get the passports out, we’re off to Portugal.
