Premiership clubs facing Champions League triple threat as coefficient points race heats up in Euro group stage

The trio of European competition groups stages get underway this week and this is where real coefficient gains and losses can be made.

The Champions League kicked off on Tuesday night for the final time in it's current format before switching to one big league table, in which teams will play each other in a round robin format and the top eight going through automatically and 9-14 entering into playoffs to join them. But that's an issue for next season - now, the priority is making sure the Scottish Premiership keeps its spot.

Scotland is currently ranked 10th in the coefficient table. We're 1.2 ranking points behind Turkey in ninth, but both Austria and Switzerland are hot on our heels in 11th and 12th respectively. And now its group stage time, things can change quickly. It's two points for a win and 0.5 for a group stage draw regardless of competition.

With only Celtic and Galatasaray in the Champions League, there's unlikely to be much in the way of movement between Scotland and Turkey based on their respective results. The Istanbul side are in action against Copenhagen on Wednesday, which could represent their best chance of increasing the gap after nine-man Celtic went down 2-0 against Feyenoord.

The Europa League and Europa Conference League is a different story. Rangers were top seeds in their group and begin at home to Betis on Thursday. Given their form in this particular competition, hopes are high that they can make some significant headway and get some points on the board - theirs and Scotland's.

Aberdeen could be a long shot and are in "anything is a bonus" territory. They are in Frankfurt to take on one of the Conference League favourites and Rangers' old foes, Eintracht. The threat comes from the Austrian