Scotland's coefficient drops a place but Celtic and Rangers stock rises as the 'bin men' keep trashing the opposition

Rangers are now 99.9 per cent assured of progression to the Europa League knockout stages. But it wasn’t enough to stop Scotland DROPPING a place in the UEFA coefficient rankings

It’s a tough old fight, this UEFA rankings malarkey. Despite Rangers’ biggest away victory since 2007 and Celtic extending their unbeaten home Champions League run to five matches, Scotland dropped a place in the rankings. The entirely unexpected, but glorious 4-1 hammering of Nice dished out by Philippe Clement's side means that they are now on the longest unbeaten away European away run in Scottish football history (seven matches). But it still wasn’t enough to stop the slide.

That’s because the 0.6 points added, (0.4 for Rangers’ win and 0.2 for Celtic’s draw), was eclipsed by an unbeaten Greek week. The two wins and one draw they banked on Thursday night was enough for them to retake 13th position as we dropped one to 14th. Scotland are unfortunately disadvantaged in this fight because Greece only entered four teams in Europe due to their poor coefficient ranking two seasons ago.

So each result is worth more points for them - 0.5 per win and 0.25 per draw. That means that even just matching their results will never be enough; we need to outdo them.

The Hearts result was the kicker, as the Jambos missed an opportunity to snatch a result against the much weaker of the two Brugge sides. The drop off in Shankland’s goal return has been staggering. Fifty-nine goals in 94 games for Hearts until this season – a different stratosphere compared the miserly one goal in 22 matches he’s netted for club and country this season.

A man bereft of confidence, he can be commended for stepping up to take the pressure penalty with 10 minutes to go.