- Rangers may need the help of a Premier League team for Champions League qualification
- A fellow European side has come to the fold to try and spoil to party
- Rangers must focus on doing their job and winning the league
Rangers need the help of one Premier League side to qualify for the Champions League group phase automatically next season.
We have already highlighted the UEFA coefficient table in a previous article, showing the extra incentives for Rangers to win the league.
Essentially, if Rangers win the SPFL Premiership, they could gain automatic Champions League qualification.
Greek side Olympiacos were the team that seemed to be the main threat to spoiling that party.
They qualified for the Champions League knockout stages, moving above Rangers in the UEFA coefficient table.
However, the stakes have now changed.
Rangers thought they had breathing room…
No matter what the circumstances are of any other team, the Rangers must win the league for any of this to be applicable.
Olympiacos had been challenging for the title, but their dip in form means they are now five points off top spot.
Everything seemed like a straight arrow for Rangers in the quest to win the league and secure Champions League football.
However, Shakhtar Donetsk’s recent Conference League victory threatens to derail this.
The Gers could now have to rely on Premier League side Crystal Palace to remove the new threat.
Not so comfortable anymore
Rangers currently have 59.25 points, despite their recent disappointing showings in Europe.
Shakhtar Donetsk currently sits on 54.750 points, having picked up +2.000 from beating AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of the Conference League.
For each win, Shakhtar can gain +2.000, for each draw it’s +1.000, and qualifying for the next round is +0.500.
If they were to win the Conference league from here and win every single game, they could go up to 63.750 points.
This is where Crystal Palace comes into the equation.
With Crystal Palace also winning 3-0 in their Conference League quarter-final first leg, the two are likely to meet in the semi-finals.
Rangers will then be praying that Crystal Palace can do a job on Shakhtar and stop them from getting more coefficient points.
Read Rangers analysis
Rangers and Danny Rohl need to stay focused on what they can control, and that’s winning the Premiership title.
None of these scenarios matters if Rohl’s men cannot get the job done in the next six games.
The Gers still find themselves one point behind Hearts, so it’s still not in their hands.
Olympiacos have been the threat to European qualification all season, but Shakhtar have created even more uncertainty.
There are so many factors that could affect Rangers’ qualification that it’s not worth focusing on for the time being.
If the ownership group is willing to put their money where their mouth is, the Gers should be strong enough to qualify through the playoffs.
