How Rangers hold a mammoth 9-0 advantage over Celtic in one European metric

In the past 17 years, Celtic have bagged 12 titles, enjoyed the longest monopoly of national domestic honours in the global game courtesy of a quadruple treble, and won precisely zero post-Christmas European ties.

In those same 17 years, Rangers have secured a modest five championships, been liquidated, required to reform and work their way through the divisions, witnessed cup success eluding them for over a decade, and yet have now racked up a total of nine post-Christmas European ties. Events on Thursday night, then, were the bitter rivals’ contrasting fortunes at this stage in continental competition over more recent times in microcosm.

In completing a thrilling 6-4 aggregate success over heavyweights Borussia Dortmund, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men pulled off among their most treasured successes in cross-boder skirmishing to earn a last 16 of the Europa League, where they will face the beatable Red Star Belgrade. Just before a pulsating 2-2 draw in Govan began to unfold, in the rung below in the European ladder, Ange Postecoglou’s side slumped to a 2-0 defeat away to little heralded Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt for a 5-1 aggregate reverse in their Conference League last 16 play-off. Celtic’s heaviest losing margin in a knock-out tie to a team outside of the big five leagues over their near 60-years of continental participation.

It remains March 2004 that the Parkhead club last recorded a post-Christmas triumph in a European tie; Martin O’Neill’s men ousting no less than Barcelona from the UEFA Cup. In part, the nature of the opponents they have found themselves against in eight post-Christmas knockout European ties since 2005, set against those faced by Rangers in their 16 such occasions, accounts for the huge