UEFA have confirmed the details of Rangers’ Europa League Playoff clash with Armenian side Alashkert with the first leg set to take place next week.
The Gers will play host to the Armenians at Ibrox on Thursday 19th August with kick-off currently scheduled to take place at 8pm.
Interestingly, Old Firm rivals Celtic will play their first leg with Dutch club AZ Alkmaar the day before (Wed 18th) as both Glasgow giants cannot host full houses on the same day.
Rangers will then make a 5000-mile round trip to the eastern corner of Europe to play Alashkert in the return with the match scheduled for 4pm BST and 7pm local time on Thursday 26th August [Scottish Sun].
This trip has added significance given it is set to take place just a few days before the first Old Firm derby of the season.
But this five-hour flight is significantly better than the eight-and-a-half hour trip the club would’ve had to take to Kazakhstan had Kairat Almaty defeated the Armenians.
Alashkert won 3-2 after extra time to progress in the groups with Rangers certainly relieved that they won’t face a trip even further into the east.
Had the club drawn Kairat Almaty they’d have faced a whopping 7000-mile round trip with that extra little touch a welcome boost to the Ibrox club.
Rangers are still licking their wounds after crashing out of the Champions League qualifiers to Malmo despite holding a major advantage at halftime of this week’s second leg.
The Gers had taken a 1-0 lead, levelling the tie at 2-2, before Bonke Innocent was sent off for the Swedish Champions.
However, Steven Gerrard’s side suffered a painful second-half collapse and would go on to lose 2-1 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate to Jon Dahl Tomasson’s side.
The exit from the competition could have wide-reaching ramifications but one football finance expert is insisting player sales are “not essential”.
