Michael Beale welcomes fresh Celtic 'challenge' against Brendan Rodgers as Rangers boss lays out Champions League vision

Michael Beale wasted no time helping get the Steven Gerrard era flying at Rangers thanks to big European away results.

Now the Ibrox boss hopes his previous in plotting those successful missions can ease his Gers team through a potentially fraught path to Champions League riches. Rangers got back their pride and made plenty progress in Europe immediately after Gerrard and Beale got to work.

A year on from the Progres Niederkorn nightmare, they battled their way through a marathon eight-game slate to reach the Europa League. They repeated the arduous qualifying trick the following season then made the Round of 16 in back-to-back campaigns. Gers were already out of Europe after a Champions League embarrassment when Beale returned in November as manager. So leading the club into continental competition for the first time – after 53 games assisting – is a huge deal for him. Beale admits the release of the domestic fixtures was one great source of excitement.

But he’d also circled a red pen around the date of July 24 - the day Gers find out their third qualifying round rivals. Sturm Graz and Serbian newcomers TSC Backa Tolopa are in the frame. Genk and Ukraine’s Dnipro-1 look tougher if they progress from the last round.

Beale recalled: “I remember coming in with Steven and, in the second week in July, we played qualifiers. Games away in places like Skopje, Maribor, having to beat Ufa. And in the next couple of years there was Legia Warsaw and Galatasaray – just to get into the group stage. Sometimes it’s better to play a team you know. There’s always, in the back of your mind, an idea of how they’re going to play and the environment you’re going into.

“There’s NEVER an easy game away from home in Europe. Sometimes