Getting Ready For Europe's Elite - Lindsay Herron's Blue Blog

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Thought I'd post this because I don't think it came through as a news feed. It's only a few days old.

 

Getting Ready For Europe's Elite

by Lindsay Herron

 

THE MAJOR ramification of retaining the SPL title means that Rangers will go into the group phase of the Champions League for the 10th time since the competition was founded 18 years ago.

 

The fact that Inter Milan and Bayern Munich do battle on Saturday night for the 2009/10 crown means that Rangers have avoided potentially treacherous qualifying rounds.

 

They have squeezed in as one of the 22 directly qualified teams as both of these heavyweights have already secured their places by virtue of winning the Italian and German leagues respectively.

 

And we can say with some certainty that Rangers will be in the third pot of seeds when the draw is made on Thursday, August 26.

 

Looking at the list of sides they could face, it is clearly going to be a mouth-watering prospect for the supporters who, of course, relish the European nights at Ibrox.

 

At the same time they will be sincerely hoping for a better return than the two points secured in the last campaign.

 

Lying in wait in pot one are Spanish champions Barcelona, England's top three Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, the two Milan clubs, Bayern Munich and Sevilla, assuming they get through in the fourth qualifying round.

 

Pot two is just as exciting with some of the great names in European football set to become Rangers' opponents.

 

In there we have Lyon, Real Madrid, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Valencia and Marseille with Werder Bremen scheduled to join them if they can come through one qualifying round.

 

The beauty of Rangers' ranking means they are going to avoid teams like Zenit St Petersburg, Tottenham, Ajax, Schalke 04, Basel and Anderlecht who will appear in pot three if they can come through qualifying as well as Panathinaikos who are already there.

 

However, there is little doubt that there are some potentially very dangerous opponents lurking in pot four with Russian outfits Spartak Moscow and Rubin Kazan, new Dutch champions Twente Enschede, Romanian champions Cluj and surprise Turkish title winners Bursapor, featuring former Rangers youth player Isa Bagci.

 

Copenhagen, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Sparta Prague are scheduled to join them as a result of their seeding but this certainly not cast in stone.

 

Revitalised Sampdoria and Auxerre might have something to say about that along with Dinamo Kiev and Fenerbahce.

 

Of course, Celtic also have ambitions of reaching the group phase but as everyone knows the qualifying process for non-champions is so difficult.

 

Last season they beat Moscow Dynamo only to lose heavily to Arsenal and parachuted into the Europa League.

 

This season they will be unseeded in the third qualifying round and are scheduled to meet Zenit, Ajax, Fenerbahce, Kiev and possibly Sporting Braga of Portugal or the dreaded Unirea Urziceni!

 

If Celtic lose at this stage they would go into the 4th qualifying round of the Europa League and failure there would mean elimination completely.

 

This scenario would not doubt bring a smirk to the faces of many Rangers fans and it would hurt Celtic financially which, by definition, might be beneficial to Rangers.

 

However, Scottish football's ranking in Europe is slipping and the 2010/11 season looks like being the last one for some time that the champions earn direct entry to the Champions League group phase.

 

In 2011/12 the SPL champions could play as many as THREE qualifiers in their attempt to reach the group phase and the runners-up will face two qualifiers to get into the Europa League.

 

http://www.rangers.co.uk/articles/20100519/getting-ready-for-europes-elite_2254712_2055274