Rangers and Hibs discover European opponents

In the second round of Champions League qualifying, Rangers and Panathinaikos were faced.

The first leg of the Scottish Premiership will take place on July 22 and 23 and then go to Greece the following week.

The winners of the first-round matchup between Linfield-champions of Northern Ireland and their Republic of Ireland counterparts Shelbourne and Qarabag from Azerbaijan will face off.

The New Saints, the Welsh champions, will face FCSB of Romania or Inter Club d’Escaldes of Andorra if they beat Shkendija of North Maceonia in a tie.

Russell Martin’s first competitive game as the Rangers head coach will be against Panathinaikos, and the former Southampton boss has been given the toughest draw of their possible draws despite having the Ibrox side seeded.

In their respective domestic leagues, all three potential opponents were runners-up, just like Rangers, but Swiss Servette are 139th (one place behind Heart of Midlothian) and Norwegian Brann is 189th, while the Greek side is 111th in the European club rankings, just 86 places behind Rangers.

After capturing AEK Athens after the division split, the side led by former Egypt and Benfica head coach Rui Vitoria finished 16 points behind Olympiakos in the Greek Super League last year.

In four meetings with Rangers, two with Motherwell, and one with Aberdeen, the Panathinaikos have won four of their seven games and never lost to Scottish foes over 90 minutes.

Rangers, however, made progress when they last faced the Ibrox side.

After drawing 1-1 at home in Athens in the round of 32 following a 0-0 draw in Glasgow, the Greeks lost on away goals after defeating Aberdeen 3-0 at home in the 2007-08 Uefa Cup group stage.

In their most recent encounter with a Scottish side in 2012, they defeated Rangers 3-1 at Ibrox and draw 1-1 at home in the Champions League group stage. They also defeated Motherwell 5-0 on aggregate in their most recent encounter in the Champions League third qualifying round.

Since 2010-11, the Panathinaikos haven’t qualified for the Champions League properly, and their last season started with a win over Botev Plovdiv before falling to Ajax to advance to Conference League by defeating Lens.

They finished 13th overall, defeated Vikingur Reykjavik in the knockout phase, lost to Fiorentina in the final 16, and lost 4-1 at home to eventual champions Chelsea.

Under Philippe Clement’s leadership last season, Rangers lost their opening Champions League qualifier to Dynamo Kyiv. By the time interim head coach Barry Ferguson was in charge, Rangers had already advanced to the Europa League quarter-finals.