Champions League breakdown revealed as Rangers and Celtic see race for place at expanded top table hot up

The winners of this season’s Scottish Premiership title are starting to see their Champions League adventure mapped out.

As it stands either Rangers or Celtic will be granted guaranteed entry to European football’s multi-millionaire’s playground. But as Record Sport revealed earlier this month, our two top teams could yet join up at the top table without the need for the dreaded qualifying rounds for the runner-up but that would require Rangers winning this campaign’s Europa League. So without that happening access to the £40million-plus golden goose will be restricted to whoever holds aloft the league trophy in May - unless the team finishing in second can safely navigate the tricky qualification route. The Light Blues managed it two seasons ago against PSV but the Dutch giants extracted revenge this year with a huge aggregate win.

Philippe Clement and Brendan Rodgers are battling it out for the Premiership crown and now with the added pressure of a multi-million pound pay day with just 12 games of the season to be played. Rangers have taken control at the summit after another weekend of twists and turns as they opened up a two point lead. The rivals face each other twice more in that final third of fixtures and they could prove even more vital ahead of the new format kicking off in Europe's premier competition.

As it stands 36 spots are open for the 2024/25 league phase of the Champions League with the winner of the competition this year as well as the Europa League winner both guaranteed entry. England, Spain, Germany and Italy hold four spots each while France will have three entrants. The Netherlands will be granted access to two teams with Portugal, Belgium, SCOTLAND and Austria currently having one guaranteed