Rangers welcome Panathinaikos to the second qualifying round of the Champions League on Tuesday. On Thursday, Hibernian travel to Midtjylland in the equivalent stage of the Europa League, while Dundee United welcome Strassen to the Conference League.
Celtic are seeded for the Champions League play-off round, with Aberdeen waiting at the equivalent stage of the Europa League. But what are the prospects of the others at least making it into the play-offs, and how pivotal could it be to Scottish clubs’ European position?
As the Scotland’s Coefficient website reports, outside observers report, the nation’s clubs stand staring into the European void if they fail to play well enough this season to enhance their collective standings. Champions Celtic and Scottish Cup winners Aberdeen alone are sure of league phase football this term.
Rangers and Hibs are able to follow if they win their initial ties, but having finished ninth in Europe in 2022-23 for a second consecutive season – the nation’s best since seventh in 1988 – Scotland’s coefficient has fallen so far that it begins the new season in 17th.
Unless Scotland can, as they did last season, better that by season’s end to 14th, their clubs would enter future seasons in their worst position since 2012. Their representation would fall from five to four clubs in two years.
Also, future winners would get three Champions League qualifiers rather than one, the runners-up three Conference League qualifiers – as well as the third-placed team – rather than three in the Champions League, and the winners of the Scottish Cup would get four Europa League qualifying matches rather than one.
Slipping out of the top 12 means that Scottish Cup winners next season will qualify for the Europa League third qualifying round rather than the play-offs and won’t get group stage football guaranteed.
In contrast, the third-placed team in the Premiership will now enter the Conference League second qualifying round rather than at the same stage in the Europa League.
Pressure is on this year’s five delegates. Scotland’s Coefficient foresees: “We will not end up in the top 15 unless we have four teams in the league phase.”
Rangers buried disappointment at missing out on Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League third qualifying round last year behind them to reach the Europa League quarter-finals, only to be defeated by Athletic Bilbao.
On the way, they drew 1-1 with eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur as they finished eighth in the league stage. Having reached the last 16 the season before, Rangers are now ranked 30th in Europe – 60 places above Panathinaikos.
However, the Greek Superleague runners-up have a decent recent record of their own, having progressed through two rounds before losing to Braga in the play-offs two years ago. They hammered Botev Plovdiv 6-1 on aggregate last season in the Europa League second qualifying round before going down to Ajax on penalties.
They would subsequently defeat Lens in the Conference League play-off before ending 13th in the league stage and advancing to the round of 16, falling to eventual semi-finalists Fiorentina.
Panathinaikos have never lost to Scottish opponents in seven matches, although – after beating Aberdeen in the group stage – it was Rangers who progressed in the 2008 Europa League round of 32 on away goals after a goalless game at Ibrox was followed by a 1-1 draw in Athens.
Five years prior, they also played 1-1 in Athens but beat 3-1 at Ibrox in the group stage of the Champions League, and their last encounter with a Scottish club was in qualifying, which was a 5-0 win over Motherwell in 2011.
Portuguese manager Rui Vitoria, hired in October, with Benfica claimed seven honours, took Al-Nassr to the 2020 Asian Champions League semi-finals, and Spartak Moscow won their Europa League group against Leicester City and Napoli during his tenure.
Former Liverpool young midfielder Pedro Chirivella, the Spaniard signed from Nantes, is one of three summer signings alongside left-back Giorgos Kyriakopoulos, who departed Monza following their relegation from Serie A.
Midfielder Manolis Siopis, who was signed from Cardiff City in January, is another of their five Greece internationals, with nine others having been capped for their countries.
They include Uruguay winger Facundo Pellistri, who featured in a few games in four years with Manchester United, one-time Southampton loanee midfielder Filip Duricic and United States centre-back Erik Palmer-Brown, once of Manchester City.
Whether Rangers, in their early days of reconstruction under new head coach Russell Martin, overcame the Greeks to advance to the Champions League third qualifying round or fall to their Europa League counterpart, teams with similar recent European form are in store.
In the top competition, it is Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic or Servette of Switzerland, whereas Besiktas of Turkey or Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine are perhaps stronger opponents in the Europa League equivalent.
