How Rangers £93m squad compares to Europa League rivals as financial disparity makes Group C progress a must

Rangers' squad is worth SIX times that of one of their Europa League group rivals, as the pressure mounts on Michael Beale to qualify for the knockout stage before a ball is even kicked.

Real Betis come to Glasgow for the opening Group C fixture and the La Liga team are heavily fancied as group winners having landed alongside Rangers, Sparta Prague and Aris Limassol. It's not an easy group but it's one they'd expect to qualify from, something reflected in the financial disparity between them and the other sides in the section.

As per data collated by SportingPedia, the Betis squad's total market value comes in at €209.5m (£181m), laying bare their status as the projected top dogs and indicating the tough task Rangers - despite being top seeds - have when they face them on Thursday. The Ibrox side are, however, the closest side to them by a distance by that measure - with their own squad value dwarfing that of Sparta and Aris.

Beale spent big in the summer with Danilo, Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers costing them close to £15m combined. And that's been reflected in the soaring value of the squad. The data has the group of players valued at €107.5m (£93m) - just over half of Betis' - but well over double that of Sparta's €41.6m (£36m) and as much as six times that of Greek side Aris who come in at just €17.95m (£15.6m).

Moreover, Rangers' squad value puts them in the more expensive half of the 32 teams currently in the competition (15th out of 32). Liverpool's €830m (£717m) is by far and away the largest while Bayer Leverkusen (£385m), West Ham (£383m), Roma (£329m) and Brighton (£325m) all compete in a different financial league. But the data puts Gers firmly mid-table, alongside Olympiacos in Group A (£98.5m) and