When is the Champions League third qualifying round draw? Which teams could Rangers face?
The Ibrox side will enter Europe’s elite club competition at the same stage as the previous two years
Rangers will discover their opponents in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round next week - with Philippe Clement’s side entering the competition two rounds from the new league phase.
The Ibrox club already know they will be SEEDED in the League Path draw, which, in theory, should mean they get an easier draw due to their impressive coefficient ranking. Czech side Slavia Prague, Austrian outfit Red Bull Salzburg and French club LOSC Lille are the other top-seeded teams in the draw.
Last season, the Light Blues endured an unsuccessful qualification campaign under Michael Beale as they lost out heavily to PSV Eindhoven at the play-off stage, crashing to a 5-1 defeat in the Netherlands following a 2-2 draw in the first leg at Ibrox. 12 months earlier, Giovanni van Bronckhorst had managed to lead the Glasgow giants back into the group stages for the first time since 2011.
On both of those occasions, the Gers safely navigated their way through the third qualifying round, beating Union Saint-Gilloise and Servette in the process. And it’s the same stage that Philippe Clement’s men will enter Europe’s elite competition for a third consecutive year as they attempt to reap the benefits that come with securing group stage football. But who could Rangers come up against first? There are six possible unseeded opponents...
Who could Rangers face in the Champions League third qualifying round draw?
- Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium)
- FC Twente (Netherlands)
- Lugano (Switzerland) or Fenerbahce (Turkey)
- Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) or Partizan (Serbia)
Lugano and Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kyiv and Partizan still need to face each other in the second qualifying round to work out which two sides will go into the hat, while Union Saint-Gilloise and FC Twente have already qualified.