Rangers will have it all to do if they are to reach the Champions League group stages with Monaco or PSV set to provide the final hurdle in the Playoff round.
The draw was made late on Tuesday morning at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon with the path to the lucrative and prestigious top table in European football now visible.
First of all, Rangers will need to dispose of Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium, starting with the away first leg tonight but if anything the chance of a top level shoot-out for qualification should spur the players on even more.
🆕 @ChampionsLeague play-off draw:
Rangers or Union Saint-Gilloise 🆚 AS Monaco FC or PSV Eindhoven
📅 Ties take place on 16/17 and 23/24 August.#UCL pic.twitter.com/t1NZPaLG1M
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) August 2, 2022
Formidable
In terms of qualification and the difficulty of the task, Monaco or PSV was the draw that most people would have wanted to avoid for obvious reasons given the quality that both teams possess. In what was a 50/50 shot due to the seeding and set up of the draw, the other potential pairing for the Gers was Dynamo Kiev or Sturm Graz. The winner of that clash will face Benfica or Midtjylland who came from the same seeded side of the draw as Gio van Bronckhorst’s team.
However, from a football perspective, on the pitch this presents the best possible preparation for the real Champions League action and given the branding and media buy-in that commences at the playoff round, it will feel just like that.
If Rangers are to get past USG and then defeat Monaco or PSV then the place in the groups will have been well and truly earned. The players will have proved themselves at a median level of that stage, with even bigger guns to follow. Gio and the coaches will know more about their players and there would be less of an unknown, as well as the chance to secure another player of quality with the windfall that would be secured. That is what is meant in terms of the perfect preparation.
Overall, the other option would obviously have been better in terms of getting where we want to be and to increase the chances of landing the jackpot but it may have created a ‘false’ impression on the pitch.
As it is, the draw has been made and for Rangers or USG, it will be Monaco or PSV waiting at the last stage before the promised land. An underdog status would also be applied but that no bad thing for all at Ibrox as the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Braga and RB Leipzig can attest to.