Rangers will face FC Alashkert in the Europa League Playoff round, following their victory over Kairat Almaty in the 3rd qualifying round on Thursday.
As it stands, Rangers are due to host the first leg next Thursday (19th Aug) before a lengthy trip one week later, just three days before the Old Firm clash with Celtic at Ibrox on Sunday 29th August.
In that regard, this outcome is ‘the lesser of two evils’ for Steven Gerrard and the squad having been spared an ardous journey to Almaty in Kazakhstan, not far from their border with China.
The only other thing to be clarified is that according to the draw, Celtic are also due to play their EL Playoff first leg at home however as domestic champions with a higher co-efficient ranking, Rangers are likely to keep the existing fixture.
Whether this is an advantage or not is up for debate. It is possible that Rangers may seek to have the ties reversed but expect confirmation on the games to follow very soon.
Travel
Alashkert are based in Yerevan – the capital of Armenia, a landlocked country in the Caucasus region, bordered by Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran.
The charter flight from Glasgow to Yerevan is likely to take around seven hours meaning a long journey but still up to three hours less than the transit to Almaty which has been avoided.
This tie will be the first time that the current Scottish champions have faced Armenian opposition in a long record of competitive European games which commenced way back in the 1956/57 season.
A victory over the two legs will send the Gers into the Europa League group stage for the fourth consecutive season.