Rangers’ long-awaited return to the Champions League offers unexpected cash win

The iconic Champions League anthem will resonate around Ibrox again tonight as memories of the classic performances, set to that unmistakable sound, will relive.

The escalation will merge with the clamor of 50,000 fans desperate for new stories in this competition after four years in the second-tier European League with noses pressed against the glass separating them from the continent’s elite.

UEFA gave the Champions League play-off the same glamorous treatment as the group stage itself, which serves as a reminder of how close both Rangers and their opponents, PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands, have come to be one of Europe’s 32 teams. The first competition this season.

It’s unlikely even a long-awaited return to the Champions League group stage will bear the same memories as last season’s stunning run to the Europa League final, but competition in the UEFA blue club championship for the first time since 2010 will amount to the final. Checkpoint in Rehabilitation Rangers.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst has only been at the club for nine months, but he has already won the Scottish Cup and has worked miracles in Europe.

He was Feyenoord’s manager during his former club’s darkest years in the lower divisions of Scotland, but his conversations with them when he was appointed in November underscored how important Champions League football is – and in his captain, James Tavernier, he has someone who is well aware of just how low Rangers have gone down. It has been.

After winning the domestic league and cup and turning into a force in Europe once again, they were left with nothing but a two-legged win over PSV Eindhoven and completing the club’s 10-year recovery.

“That should be our goal and that’s why we’re working so hard,” says Van Bronckhorst. “It does not mean that we will play every year in the Champions League but the desire, and what we want to show everyone, is to be in that tournament.”

Unforgettable drama like last season will be appreciated, but delving deeper into the Europa League should be the new normal for a team that plays in the same modern rulebook as the other big clubs in the continent’s mid-sized domestic leagues.

Van Bronckhorst said Eindhoven are in a similar position to Rangers.

PSV Eindhoven may have been in the Champions League group stage three times between 2015 and 2019, but their progression to the quarter-finals of the third-tier European League Conference last season was as deep as they have reached in any of UEFA’s competitions since reaching the quarter-finals. 17 years ago, he lost the Champions League semi-finals, but only lost to Milan with away goals before his famous collapse against Liverpool in Istanbul.

Rangers and PSV Eindhoven are two teams that should be on the sidelines of the Champions League but could find glory at a level below. Tried and tested in these high-edge matches, Rangers have won 13 of 14 qualifying matches since beating Macedonia’s Shkobi in the Europa League qualifiers in July 2018.

The only failure came last summer against Sweden’s Malmo, but they have gone better than this season already by defeating Belgium’s Royal Union Saint-Gilloise in the previous round.

As the table below shows, PSV is slightly stronger according to Club ELO, a site that provides a statistical measure of teams across the continent.

That’s as close to a 50-50 tie as it is with Rangers, which isn’t a bad thing in the playoff stage.

PSV Eindhoven is a level of opposition that ELO has ranked as the fifth best team they will face Rangers in the past four years, behind RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Porto.

*Silver cells indicate opponents with a higher rank than Rangers at the time of their first meeting; The number in parentheses indicates the order of ELO

If they lose to PSV Eindhoven, the blow will be mitigated by the €5m (£4.2m, $5.1m) they will receive as a form of parachute payment in exchange for a return to the Europa League group stage.

Rangers are ranked 33 in the UEFA Common Competence Rankings, based on performance in European competition over the past five years. That includes a disastrous Europa League exit from the first qualifying round to Progress Niederkorn of Luxembourg in the summer of 2017, so that goes against the standard at which Rangers are operating.

Interestingly, the only clubs above it that are not in the top five leagues are Porto, Ajax, Red Bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, Basel and Slavia Prague. These are all clubs that have developed a reputation as progressive strategists, running productive and profitable academies and building effective exploratory networks for stable success.

However, it looks like the list of typical clubs above Rangers in the rankings will get smaller.

This year’s accounts so far place them at number 29 on the table. They averaged 15 points over the past three years, having reached the Europa League last 16 twice and then to the final in Seville last season.

They are expected to reach 19th place in 2024, which will make a big difference in the draw for the group stage in the future, as they will be in the top two pots.

The challenge then is that without qualifying matches to win and accumulate points, they will have to do more than just be in the Champions League if they want to avoid a joint withdrawal again.

The best path for Rangers appears to be to qualify, as they finished third in their Champions League group, relegated to the Europa League and had real success in winning it. This would give them the financial boost to being on time again the following season as well as the psychological blessing to delve deeper into the European competition.

Co-efficient payments are calculated on a share basis, with the lowest rated team receiving 1 share (€1.137 million) and the highest rated team receiving 32 shares (€36.38 million).

There are 26 teams that have already qualified for the group stage and Rangers, who have been ranked 66th for 10 years, are less than all of those teams.

Regardless of who wins the match Dynamo Kyiv against Benfica, both teams are ranked above them, which means that the highest rating Rangers can receive will be 28 out of 32. In the table below, teams marked in red will be placed above Rangers in the joint competency share division if They win their relationship.

The difference between the 28th and 32nd positions is 4.5 million euros.

* “Participation Place” is where each club will be placed in the Joint Competence Participation Division

Van Bronckhorst puts his wits against Eindhoven boss and former Netherlands team-mate Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Premier League title contender 20 years ago when they were playing for Arsenal and Manchester United respectively. They haven’t spoken since the lottery. “I am looking forward to meeting him again and also seeing a player I played with take his steps as a coach,” said Van Bronckhorst.

Van Bronckhorst confirmed the return of Ryan Kent and James Sands to the squad after missing Saturday’s 4-0 win over St Johnston. It is possible that both will make it into the squad against PSV, but the way Rangers handle the match could be the deciding factor in how they achieve a tie.

Returning to Ibrox for the second leg has given them an advantage recently as they turned the deficit against Braga, Leipzig and Union Saint-Gilloise by harnessing the power of Ibrox. But this time, they’ll be home first with a return in Eindhoven next Wednesday. So, how do they approach tonight?

“The most important thing is how we start the match,” said Van Bronckhorst. “I think the spread will be very small and very tight.

“It will be a big game for all of us, for both clubs, because we all want to be in the Champions League and there is only one ticket left in this match. I am sure we will see PSV who will do everything to play it, and we will see Rangers doing their best.

“I think there are all the ingredients to two great games and in the end, the winner takes it all.”

(top image: Getty Images)