The ramifications for Rangers and Scottish football of their run to the quarter-finals of the Europa League are increasingly intriguing.
Because of the boost Rangers’ success has given to Scotland’s Uefa coefficient score, this season’s Scottish champions are set for direct entry to next season’s Champions League — but will that be Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side, or will their European exploits prove a damaging distraction in domestic terms?
April is shaping up to be a decisive month on all fronts for a Rangers squad that is slightly smaller than Celtic’s. They will return from the forthcoming international break to a busy fortnight, facing Celtic at home in the league and at Hampden in a Scottish Cup semi-final, plus taking on Sporting Braga, of Portugal, home and away in the two legs of their Europa League quarter-final.
Throw in another league game away to St Mirren between those four fixtures and Van Bronckhorst will need his first choices to be fit and his fringe players to step forward if they are not. It’s a nice problem to have to an extent, but who will focus on the fact that he guided Rangers a round further than Steven Gerrard managed in Europe if it leads to losing the Premiership title?
Braga bring a reminder in themselves of how Rangers have previously struggled to cope with such sequences. Two years ago, before the season ended prematurely due to the Covid pandemic, Rangers overcame the Portuguese club at the last-16 stage of the Europa League. A stirring fightback resulted in a 3-2 win at Ibrox, and they followed that with a 1-0 victory in Portugal.
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The only problem was the domestic performances around those wins. A 2-2 draw away to St Johnstone caused them to fall further behind Celtic, and the second-leg win was followed by a Scottish Cup exit away to Hearts.
Alfredo Morelos was excluded by Gerrard that night at Tynecastle because he returned late from compassionate leave in Colombia and it was followed by another league loss, 1-0 at home to Hamilton Academical, probably the nadir of Gerrard’s three-year reign.
Rangers overcame Red Star Belgrade in the round of 16 without Aaron Ramsey, signed on loan from Juventus to such fanfare in January, playing a single second of either tie against the Serbian side — so Van Bronckhorst could do with the Welshman playing in his country’s forthcoming World Cup play-off against Austria, and also returning from it fully fit to play an important part in the weeks ahead.
Though the box-office opponents for Rangers from Friday’s draw in Switzerland would have been Barcelona or West Ham United, they will fill Ibrox regardless, and beating Braga is within their capabilities. A semi-final against either Atalanta or RB Leipzig may be asking too much, but, for now, is only a hypothetical tie.
Their run to the Uefa Cup final in 2008, when they lost to Zenit St Petersburg and were beaten to the league title by Celtic, also comes to mind. As the fixtures piled up in the home straight of that season, Rangers played nine games in 24 days and even struggled to overcome Queen of the South for the meagre consolation of winning the Scottish Cup.
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Nevertheless, their fans can continue to dream of marking the 50th anniversary of their only European trophy, the 1972 Cup Winners’ Cup, with another.
In historical terms that would
mean more than a 56th domestic title, but the here and now of
losing out to Celtic this season would hurt, while missing out on the financial benefits of securing a place in next season’s Champions League group stage, worth £25 million at a conservative estimate, would also have implications for years to come.
