Rangers surge past Celtic in coefficient contribution with Ibrox tally ranking above European heavyweights

Rangers have surpassed Celtic to become the top contributing side Scotland's coefficient tally in the last five years - and have just fallen short of topping the European list.

Scottish champions Celtic earned an automatic Champions League group stage spot when they lifted the Premiership title at the end of last season, with Gio van Bronckhorst's men navigating the playoff rounds to join their city rivals among Europe's elite clubs this term. It follows a series of impressive performances in Europe for the Ibrox side, having reached the Europa League final last season.

The push to Seville has now seen Rangers rocket past Celtic in contributions made the Scottish football's coefficient score over the last fives seasons. That means that Brendan Rodgers' 2016-17 campaign, where the Hoops negotiated the playoff rounds to reach the Champions League group stage and faced Borussia Mönchengladbach, Manchester City and Barcelona, has now dropped off the list.

The first season now taken into considerations is the e 2017-18 campaign, when Celtic finished third in their Champions League group containing Anderlecht, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. They dropped into the Europa League, but would crash out in the last 32 to Zenit St Petersburg.

At that time, Rangers were struggling to make their mark on Europe. Pedro Caixinha infamously led Rangers out of Europe against minnows Progrès Niederkorn.

The following season, Rodgers would fail to reach the Champions League before leaving for Leicester, with Neil Lennon steering the Europa League campaign before defeat to Valencia sent the club out at the knockout stages. As Steven Gerrard's era kicked off Rangers reached the group stage of UEFA's second tier competition but did