Rangers are in frying pan of Spain - and it all boils down to this with Europa League trophy on line

The Europa League trophy stands at 65 centimetres high and weighs 15 kilograms, but for Rangers, winning it tonight would represent an achievement of considerably greater size and standing.

James Tavernier is one match away from joining John Greig as a European trophy-winning Rangers captain – the only other in the Govan outfit’s history and one of just three Scottish club skippers to do so.

What is at stake here in Seville, the frying pan of Spain, doesn’t come along often and the heat is on for Rangers to achieve history.

“It’s different from Glasgow, that’s for sure,” said manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst of the mid-afternoon heat when conducting his pre-match press conference. There have been some red-hot European nights at Ibrox this season but nothing can compare to what this Rangers team is about to experience against Eintracht Frankfurt at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.

“We’re here now, we see the difference in the attention we have from the media, you look at the stadium and we also have the press conference – it’s all because we reached the final,” van Bronckhorst continued. “But if you play in big games and finals you get so much attention. We have to make sure we are concentrating on our game.

“Of course, it’s a big game and it comes with pressure because you have the ability, the chance to win a major prize. But in any top sport you have to have a little bit of pressure to perform well. That’s what we have to do.”

Where would it rank in the great European victories for Scottish teams, at a time where the weighting of UEFA tournaments is against representatives from our own SPFL? The gradual improvement of Rangers in this competition, and of the country’s co-efficient, is significant, but would be topped