Scottish football faces a big few days in Europe.
So much good work has been done recently and the onus is on our quartet of representatives – starting with Celtic on Wednesday night followed by Rangers, Aberdeen and St Johnstone – to ensure some of it is not ruined.
There is an irony in the fact that Scotland’s title winners this term will go straight into the group stage of the Champions League, given the fact our flag bearers have never seemed further away.
It’s four years since Celtic got past the qualifiers and it hasn’t just been narrow failures.
Given the direct entry to the group for 2022/23, it seems astounding to think that no Scottish team has made the play-off round in four years.
Celtic went out at the third qualifying round stage to both AEK Athens and CFR Cluj.
Worse was to follow for them with second-qualifying round exits to Ferencvaros and FC Midtjylland with Rangers also failing to get to the final shootout this year on their return to the competition with their third qualifying round exit to Malmo.
In fact, the last two efforts have seen the Glasgow pair go out in their very first tie.
The mystery of the coefficient system’s been laid bare by the fact that, despite these dismissals, one will march straight in amongst the elite next season.
The Europa League is the level of Rangers and Celtic whether they like it or not.
There’s no shame in that when you look at what the likes of PSG are doing at the moment, and they have both done well recently.
Steven Gerrard’s team reached the last 16 in both of the last two campaigns and, although they had a nightmare last term, Celtic won their group in the previous campaign.
But reaching the group stage by seeing off AZ Alkmaar and Alashkert is imperative for the pair of them because it won’t be a good look dropping into the new Europa Conference.
Of course, Aberdeen and St Johnstone have less expectations, but for the sake of our game, we really could do with at least one of them making it into the Conference group stage.
No-one says it is easy, but the fact that none of our teams from outside of Glasgow has got to the Europa League groups since it was revamped is a slight no matter how you dress it up.
Put into context, with the greatest of respect to the Irish set-up, Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk have both been there while we’ve had noses pressed against glass.
Due to extensive negotiations amongst some of the lesser nations, UEFA opened doors with the creation of a third tournament for this term – a format designed to get more teams into European action until at least Christmas.
Yet there is still a chance we’ll still get no more than usual with Hibs having already seen their ticket blown into the Adriatic Sea last week. St Johnstone gave a good account of themselves in the Europa League against Galatasaray, but they are again underdogs against LASK.
Aberdeen should really be getting there, but they are also in deep water with a game against Qarabag.
The Azerbaijani side have been in the group stage of the Champions League in recent seasons and qualified for the last three Europa League groups.
Scottish clubs have enjoyed a steady rise up the European rankings in recent seasons thanks to Celtic and Rangers and it would be a shame for it to start regressing just when we’ve got a foot in the door again.
So while our four teams involved want to do the best they can for themselves, they can also help protect and enhance the nation’s reputation in the next nine days.
