When Slavia Prague and Sparta Prague exited European competition it looked as though Rangers Champions League heartbeat was just about still beating.
Unfortunately, Viktoria Plzen had other ideas with the Czech outfit managing to repeat the feat of Walter Smith’s side in 2008 and eaked out a 0-0 draw at home with Fiorentina.
That draw was enough to lift Czechia up level on coefficient points with Scotland (Rangers) which has serious repercussions if Philippe Clement can bring title success to the club.
What is the latest on Rangers Champions League hopes?
The winners of this season’s Scottish Premiership are safe and will qualify automatically for next year’s new and revamped Champions League which will see five teams from the top two leagues.
When you think about the origins of the tournament, it’s a shame to see so many league winners having to fight with each other to eat at the top table whereas others seem to have a lifelong membership.
The problems start if Rangers win the league next season, the manager, Philippe Clement would no longer be guaranteed the bonus of having a bigger transfer budget that comes with a reported £50m bonus, or would he?
Well, just about.
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Scotland might not have a high coefficient ranking but Rangers still do, and we would have to be ridiculously unlucky and several other teams break their records for points to miss out in 2025/26.
Celtic’s future is clearer, consistent failure in Europe means that they would definitely have to face a team outside of the top ten leagues in the play-offs whereas Rangers would get automatic entry on one condition.
If the previous season’s winner also qualifies through their league, the next highest team in the rankings would get the bump up which, at this moment in time, is Rangers.
Dinamo Zagreb and Shakhtar Donetsk are the two teams who Rangers fans will need to keep an eye on next season but we have sizeable lead to protect.
For context, we would have to do worse than our recent adventure in the Champions League and both these teams would have to outdo their previous best.
What does this mean in simple terms?
In short, if Rangers win the league in the next two seasons, they will be in the group stages.
The real problems start beyond that because Scotland has some serious points to catch up.
From the start of next season, we will be in 16th place on the coefficient rankings, we were ninth at the beginning of this campaign.
Aberdeen made a decent fist of it this season and picked up a few points but still left a few out there, Celtic, well, they currently sit on 32 points to our 63 which says it all.
There is one nagging ‘what if’ that continues to annoy me though.
Yes, the other teams in Scotland should do more but, we are level on points with Czechia.
All we had to do was beat Aris Limassol, just once, and Scotland’s position would be secure for another season.
Talk about bogey teams.