Rangers face beefed up Europa League battles as EPL threat doesn't end with Liverpool as old foes lurk in every pot

The Europa League, or its former guise of the UEFA Cup, has often provided a bit of comfort for Scottish Champions League dropouts over the years.

For both Celtic and Rangers, it provided them their respective routes to the final of the competition in Seville. Both suffered heartache in the Andalusian capital at the last hurdle but nevertheless supporters have memories to last a lifetime. Not to mention the millions banked by their clubs for their journeys.

On each of those occasions, the Glasgow giants lost in the qualifiers for UEFA’s premier competition. Martin O’Neill’s men went down to Swiss side Basel in 2002 with Steven Gerrard’s Rangers losing to Malmo a couple of years ago. It might seem ambitious to think Michael Beale could lead his team on a similar run following the 5-1 thumping at the hands of PSV Eindhoven as the Dutch completed a 7-3 aggregate mauling of the Ibrox men in the Champions League playoff round.

But it’s that kind of hope the fans will be clinging on to this morning ahead of Friday’s group stage draw. There has been a general feeling that the Europa League is more of Rangers’ level after their pounding by the Dutch coming on the back of some heavy beatings in the group stage of the Champions League last season.

However, a look at some of the teams competing in the 2023/23 edition of the tournament shows how tough it could be. There could even be a rematch with Liverpool or Ajax - two teams who helped inflict Euro pain on Rangers last season and contribute to Rangers’ unwanted record of the worst performing team in Champions League group stage history, including that 7-1 home mauling by Jurgen Klopp’s Reds at Ibrox.

There’s also the chance of Roma and West Ham United who have won the last