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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
Sport
Mark McDougall

Rangers face coefficient shootout for Champions League spot as Ibrox side and Celtic boost chances with wins

Scotland and Ukraine are set to battle it out for the remaining automatic Champions League spot in the last 32 of the Europa League.

But worryingly for Scottish clubs, Ukraine have two teams left in the tournament and therefore have more opportunity to win games to boost their coeffient.

There is also an opportunity for Serbia to get the spot, but it means Red Star Belgrade would need to go all the way in the Europa League.

Rangers are the Scottish only team left but the wins for Steven Gerrard's men and Celtic in the final game of the group stage handed the coefficient a major boost ahead of the next round.

They need to finish 11th to have a chance of an automatic spot, which will come providing the winner of the previous year's Champions League comes from a league in the top 10.

But now it's a case of Rangers vs Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev for the remainder of the Europa League to see if they can manage to achieve that feat.

It would be the first time in a decade that a Scottish club has automatic qualification to the group stage of the Champions League and represents a massive change in the coefficient in recent seasons.

Monday's Europa League draw could have a huge say on what happens with that spot.

Turkey have now dropped out of the running for the spot after they failed to get a single club through to the knockout stages of European competition.

Shakthar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev have both dropped into the Europa League and the former, like Rangers, are seeded for the draw.

Kiev won't be and it could be argued that a draw with Rangers could be best for potentially sealing that spot, with the two teams going head-to-head.

The table currently sits with Rangers in 11th on 32.125, while Ukraine are just behind on 31.700.

Moving forward, a win for Rangers would get 0.500 points while Ukrainian teams get just 0.400.

It means Rangers are likely to need to reach the last 16 to have a real opportunity of holding onto the spot, but the results could give an extra boost next year.

As things stand, Scotland will start 2021/22 in 10th place in the seedings with the disastrous 2016/17 season dropping off the list.

It means they will be less than a point behind both Holland and Austria in the rankings.

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