ESPN journalist Dale Johnston has explained the significance of the wins last night for Celtic and the Rangers in terms of where these results now leave Scottish sides in Europe going forward.
If you are fed up with these stressful summer qualifiers then there’s good news and the way things are going it might not be too far away when the Scottish Champions go straight into the Champions League Group stages without having to participate in the qualifiers at all!
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Mostly we’d look forward to the Rangers getting beat and going out of Europe but last night we were quite pleased that they won – for the reasons that Dale Johnston outlines below and also so they have to play pretty much the same schedule as Celtic this autumn/winter. Celtic already have the one remaining postponed league match against Aberdeen to play and also the semi-final of the Scottish Cup against the same team early net month, with a possible final appearance to follow.
“Scotland coefficient update,” Johnston tweeted. “Huge news for Scottish football as both Celtic and (the) Rangers make the group stage of the Europa League again. But even more important that (the) Rangers knocked out a Turkish club, in Galatasaray.
*Scotland coefficient update*
Huge news for Scottish football as both Celtic and Rangers make the group stage of the Europa League again.
But even more important that Rangers knocked out a Turkish club, in Galatasaray.
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) October 1, 2020
“Scotland’s meteoric rise up the UEFA coefficient means two places in UCL qualifying from next season, with fewer qualifying rounds to play.
“Now, if Celtic and (the) Rangers can perform in the UEL this term, there is a real chance of earning one automatic place in the UCL for 2022-23.
“Scotland 13th place, but with (the) Rangers knocking out Galatasaray it means Scotland (the Rangers, Celtic) and Turkey (Istanbul Basaksehir, Sivasspor) only two teams left.
“Scotland (13) and Turkey (12) separated by 0.025 of a coefficient point. Scotland earn more than that with a draw.
“If Scotland can outperform Turkey, they have a chance of breaking into the top 11, which is usually an auto UCL place.
“Scotland would have to do better than Ukraine, who have three teams left but two are in the Champions League where coefficient points are harder to come by.
“With Denmark, Cyprus, Serbia and Switzerland, directly below Scotland, down to one team, Scotland’s key position within the top 15 looks almost guaranteed.
Now, if Celtic and (the) Rangers perform well in the UEL an auto UCL place for the Scottish champions is there for the taking.”
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