Steely Rangers kept Slavia Prague at bay and head back to Ibrox with a fighting chance to reach the Europa League last eight.
Steven Gerrard's side recovered from a goal down to rescue a draw in the Czech Republic, securing a crucial away goal via Filip Helander's first-half equaliser.
Not only was it a positive evening in the club's fight to progress to the next round, they - and Scottish football - received a double boost on the UEFA coefficient front.
Rangers' knockout stage exploits could yet secure an automatic Champions League group stage place for the Premiership champions in the not so distant future.
For the 2022/23 competition, 32 teams will be placed directly into the groups and 26 of those will qualify automatically.
The places are allocated via UEFA's country coefficient.
That includes the domestic champions from the top 10, runners-up from nations ranked 1-6 and the 3rd and 4th place teams from the top four divisions.
Two further places are held back for the Champions League and Europa League winners.
However, the last time the team who lifted the Champions League trophy did not also win their domestic league was way back in 2012.
Therefore, what tends to happen is that place is given to the domestic champions of the country placed 11th.
And that could well be Scotland, who currently sit in that very spot.
However, Ukraine are in hot pursuit and went in to Thursday night's Europa League last 16 with two teams in contention.
With only Rangers' left for Scotland, the gap between the two nations had closed to just 0.025 points after the previous round.
Clubs get 2 points a for win and 1 for a draw.
The scoring system, though, then divides those points by the number of teams a nation entered at the start of the season.
Scotland entered four and Ukraine entered five, going all the way back to last summer's qualifiers.
It means Rangers' draw added 0.250 to Scotland's coefficient while it was a decidedly bad night for Ukraine as their hopes suffered a damaging one-two punch.
Dynamo Kiev were beaten 2-0 at home by Villarreal and Shakhtar Donetsk were thumped 3-0 away at Roma, putting both sides on the brink of elimination heading into next week's second legs.
Scotland's lead has been stretched to 0.275 points but, as demonstrated by the scoring system that can be overturned in the blink of an eye.
A win for either of the Ukrainian sides, even if they don't go through in their tie, would earn them 0.400 points and potentially change the picture entirely.
The ideal coefficient outcome would be a Rangers victory at Ibrox, with both Dynamo and Shakhtar beaten again, meaning that automatic group stage place could well be decided next Thursday.
