Europa League: Supercomputer predicts Rangers’ chances of winning competition

Rangers booked their place in the quarter finals of the tournament - the furthest they’ve got in Europe since reaching the UEFA Cup final in 2008 - with a 4-2 aggregate win over Red Star Belgrade.

The draw for the quarter finals and semi finals took place on Friday, with Rangers set to play Portuguese side Braga in the next round.

Victory in that tie would see them face the winner of RB Leipzig and Atalanta in the semis. An enticing final against Barcelona could be on the cards were the Gers to get through that round as well.

Will Rangers will the Europa League?

According to the fivethirtyeight Europa League predictor, Rangers don’t have much chance of lifting the Europa League trophy at the end of the tournament.

The supercomputer has given Rangers the lowest chance of all the remaining teams of winning the competition - with a 4 per cent chance.

Even Braga, their quarter final opponents - and the team they knocked out of the same tournament in 2020 - have been given a better chance of winning.

Unsurprisingly, Barcelona have been given the best odds - 38 per cent - and a 60 per cent chance of reaching the final.

RB Leipzig and Atalanta are next, being given a 25 and 13 per cent chance of winning respectively.

We also revealed last week that the same supercomputer predicted which team will win the Scottish Premiership.

How does the supercomputer work?

The fivethirtyeight predictor brings together information from various sources - including in-depth game data from Opta and historic information from the ESPN database.

Each team is given an SPI rating, which determines the club’s strength in attack and defence. These figures are then used to determine who will win when two sides face each other.

Ratings are adjusted after every match to reflect how teams fared.

For more information about how the system works, check out the fivethirtyeight explainer.