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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Gabriel McKay

How Celtic and Rangers’ conquerers have fared in the Champions League as group stage warning is sent

Good runs from both Celtic and Rangers in the Europa League in recent seasons have brought a welcome boost to Scotland's coefficient.

We've become sadly accustomed to the Premiership winners being knocked out of the Champions League in July and August, but a return to the big time could be on the cards.

With Scotland now ranked 11th in the coefficient it's almost certain that this season's champions will get a direct ticket to the group stage and all the riches that entails.

The windfall has been put at £40million and there's certainly something more glamorous about taking on Europe's best under the lights with the Champions League anthem ringing out.

That said, it's not all sunshine and roses once you're coming up against the real cream of the crop, as Brendan Rodgers could testify.

He saw his Celtic team beaten 7-0 by Barcelona, 5-0 and 7-1 by Paris Saint-Germain, and 3-0 by Bayern Munich.

Clearly there's no way of knowing how the Parkhead club would have done in subsequent seasons, nor Rangers this term had they managed to qualify.

However, looking at the teams that knocked the pair out and went on to reach the promise land we might get an idea of the size of pond the Premiership winners are likely to be thrown in next season.

Here's how the conquerors of Rangers and Celtic have fared.

Malmo 2021-22

(SNS Group)

The Swedes beat Rangers in both legs of their third qualifying round tie to advance to the play-off round 4-2 on aggregate.

They squeaked past Ludogorets at that stage to make it to the Champions League proper, but it's been a struggle for Jon Dahl Tomasson's team.

Beaten 3-0 by Juventus in their opening game, that's been followed up by 4-0 losses to Zenit St Petersburg and Chelsea.

The mathematicians among you will have already spotted that's 0 points, 0 goals and 11 conceded.

Ferencvaros 2020-21

(Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Starting all the way back in the first qualifying round, the Hungarian champions made it all the way to the group stage and took Celtic's scalp along the way.

In a one-off game at Parkhead, Ferencvaros took advantage of some atrocious defending to take a 2-1 win and set the tone for a season of struggle for Neil Lennon's side.

Having made it to the group they were rewarded with a draw against Barcelona and Juventus, as well as Dynamo Kiev.

A solitary point game against the Ukrainians, while Ferencvaros were battered by the two giants in their group.

They ended having conceded 17 and scored five with just that one draw to show for it.

AEK Athens 2018-19

Leigh Griffiths looks dejected at full time (SNS)

The first time Rodgers' side failed to go to the groups they were sent crashing out by the champions of Greece, who then beat MOL Vidi of Hungary in the play-off.

A group of death featuring Bayern Munich, Ajax and Benfica awaited them though and a Greek tragedy ensued.

AEK lost every game, conceding 13 goals along the way.

They managed to score just twice and both game in a 3-2 home defeat to Benfica.

Malmo 2015-16

It's the Swedes again, this time putting paid to Ronny Deila's Champions League ambitions with Celtic.

That came in the play-off round so it was straight on to the big stage, and Malmo did manage a win in Group A.

Sadly the goal in their 1-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk was the only one they got in the six games and they took a 5-0 tonking at home to Paris Saint-Germain before losing 8-0 to Real Madrid in the Bernabeu.

Another eye-opening example of the level in the group stage with three points, one goal and 21 conceded across six games.

NK Maribor 2014-15

Ronny Deila and John Collins look on as Celtic bomb out of the Champions League in 2014 (Daily Record)

Deila's first season also saw his side eliminated in the play-off round, with Maribor winning 2-1 at Parkhead to advance to the group stage.

There they were drawn against Chelsea, Schalke and Sporting and failed to win a game as they finish bottom.

To be fair the Slovenians did manage three draws, including at home to Chelsea, but the English side despatched them 6-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Overall the record read three points, four scored and 13 conceded.

The scores on the doors

With Malmo three games into their campaign, the last five teams to have knocked out Rangers or Celtic and made it to the competition proper have played 27 matches.

Between them they've managed seven points, 12 goals, and a record of 75 conceded.

The financial benefits of making it to the group stage are clear, but that record provides a stark warning of the level the Premiership champions will likely be playing at next season.

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