Rangers’ European record has garnered a lot of attention lately, despite a “blip” caused by injuries during the previous season’s Champions League.
One could argue that our current place of 25 among the top on the continent, which could see us protected and Celtic on the outside looking in, is Steven Gerrard’s legacy rather than his number 55.
Of course, there are limitations to these kinds of circumstances, and Rangers’ has been made more difficult by the fact that one European match was decided on penalties, which may have an impact on our chances of winning the Champions League in 2025–2026.
Champions League award handed to Rangers for their European form
Currently, Scotland is rated 10th overall on the UEFA coefficient list, with the Czech Republic coming in at number 11.
Unfortunately, they have now narrowed the difference to just 0.5 because every other Scottish club in Europe has been losing every year.
All it would take is one successful outcome to surpass us.
Things were tight going into Rangers’ match against three Czech teams Friday night at Ibrox, thanks to Viktoria Plzen’s penalty-taking victory that advanced them to the Europa Conference League quarterfinals.
If they draw either of their next two matches against Fiorentina, they will slide to eleventh place.
This is when things become tricky.
Rangers’ situation is different because, for once, UEFA is rewarding us due to our recent performance.
We would still qualify for the Champions championship’s redesigned group stage if we were to win the championship the following season (2024–25) under new manager Philippe Clement of the Giants.
Celtic would no longer be able to profit from our success in European competition and would have to compete in qualifications if they were to win the league.
Because of the new UEFA tournament format, it’s unclear what this means in terms of safety nets and slipping into the Europa League, but it’s comforting to know that, should Plzen gain additional points, all is not lost.
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