Gio van Bronckhorst faces a Rangers test he cannot fail because the other side of the coin is toxic - Hugh Keevins

When Motherwell were eliminated from Europe last month, manager Graham Alexander paid for the humiliation with his livelihood. Would Giovanni van Bronckhorst suffer a similar fate if Rangers nosedived out of the Champions League qualifiers on Tuesday night? Not a chance.

But it wouldn’t be a good look given the similarities between both sets of circumstances. Motherwell going out of the Conference League qualifiers at the hands of Sligo Rovers was seen as a low point for Scottish football. Whether it was the lowest point of all is academic. They were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I can’t agree with the radio caller I heard describe Rangers ’ opponents Union Saint-Gilloise as a “glorified pub team”. But they shouldn’t be beating Rangers over two legs given the disparity in size between them. There’s no point in anyone hyperventilating because new signing Ridvan Yilmaz says he wants to win trophies at Ibrox then move to a bigger club.

What the Turk said at his unveiling was a simple statement of fact. There are bigger clubs than Rangers – and plenty of them. But, in turn, they dwarf their Belgian opponents and an aggregate defeat on Tuesday should be unthinkable.

Particularly if it denied them a multi-million pound windfall in the process. The Belgians’ last European tie was 58 years ago in a now defunct tournament. And they don’t even have a home fit for purpose in UEFA’s eyes, which forced them to lay the groundwork for Rangers’ present discomfort in rented accommodation.

Now it’s all about Ibrox, a stadium custom-built for European drama. Surely we’re getting to the stage where the fans should be admitted free of charge for these games? A capacity crowd is expected to create an atmosphere that makes a