Rangers, Hibs & Dundee United to discover Euro opponents

In the second qualifying round of the Champions League, Russell Martin will find out if his new Rangers team will face Brann, Panathanaikos, or Servette on Wednesday.

Due to their participation in the same competition stage as the Europa League and Conference League, Hibernian and Dundee United will also learn who are their opponents.

At this time, neither Aberdeen, the Scottish Cup winner, nor Celtic, the Scottish champion, are involved.

On August 4, Celtic will be seeded in the Champions League play-off draw because they will be unseeded as they also enter the Europa League.

After Rangers reached the Europa League quarter-finals last year under interim head coach Barry Ferguson, Martin has much to live up to in Europe.

However, he will hope to recover from Dynamo Kyiv’s opening Champions League qualifying defeat, which resulted in Philippe Clement’s side being dropped into second-tier contention.

If Rangers want to qualify for the Champions League, as did Hibs and United in their competitions, they must pass three stages this time.

They will start their European campaign against a team that, like themselves, finished second in their home league if seeded for the draw.

The Greek team would face the toughest test on paper, with Servette 139th (one behind Heart of Midlothian) and Brann 189th (the Greek side is 111th in the European club rankings, 86 places behind Rangers).

In four meetings with Rangers, two with Motherwell, and one with Aberdeen, the Athens side have won four of their seven games in a row against Scottish foes over 90 minutes.

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

The Greeks were eliminated on away goals after defeating Aberdeen 3-0 at home in the 2007-08 Uefa Cup group stage after a 0-0 draw in Glasgow and a 1-1 draw in Athens in the round of 32.

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 last 16, and lost 4-1 at home to eventual champions Chelsea.

In the third qualifying round, where Rangers lost 1-1 to Rangers in Switzerland after a 2-1 defeat at Ibrox, Servette have moved the longest in the Champions League.

In the 1985 European Cup second round, they lost to Aberdeen by one goal in their only other encounter with a Scottish side.

After defeating Braga, Chelsea knocked them out in the Conference League play-off round last season.

Brann, Rangers’ final-possession rival, has only once qualified for group-stage football, winning in the Uefa Cup in 2007.

The Bergen side defeated St Mirren 4-2 on aggregate after winning 3-1 in Norway last year before falling to Astana in the play-off round.

Rangers will begin their campaign on July 22nd and 29th, regardless of which of their three opponents.

Hibs’ love affair with Europe, which began in 1973 with two semi-finals and three other quarter-finals, but which they divorced last season, has returned with a third-place finish.

In addition to the three Champions League opponents Rangers have, David Gray’s Leith side has plenty more options.

With Anderlecht of Belgium, Braga of Portugal, Midtjylland of Denmark, Midtjylland of Denmark, and Lugano of Switzerland as potential opponents, Hibs are unseeded for the draw.

Other options include Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, Finland’s Ilves Tampere, Moldova’s Sheriff Tiraspol, Kosovo’s Prishtina, Poland’s Legia Warsaw, Kazakhstan’s Aktobe, and Larnaca in Serbia’s Partizan.

Early on Wednesday morning, Uefa is likely to divide the draw into two groups, which would lessen the potential match-ups for Hibs.

Hibs have never advanced to the group stages, but they did so two years ago, in contrast to those tumultuous early days of European football.

In the play-off round, Aston Villa defeated them 8-0 on aggregate to beat Inter Club d’Escaldes and Luzern before qualifying for Conference League.

As United resumes European football after two years of break after finishing fourth in the Premiership and looking to reach the group/league stage for the first time, memories of that 1987 Uefa Cup final are quickly fading.

United will be happy that they and the Dutch side are both seeded and cannot face each other at this point this season after losing 7-1 on aggregate to AZ Alkmaar in the third round of Conference League qualifying last time.

With more than 60 potential opponents on Jim Goodwin’s side, that is one of the few draw’s that is certain to be true.

United might want to avoid Swedish sides AIK and Hammarby among those.

As easier opponents, Welsh teams Haverfordwest County and Penybont, Northern Ireland’s Cliftonville and Dungannon Swifts, or the Republic of Ireland duo St. Patrick’s Athletic and Drogheda United and Northern Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Athletic and Drogheda United, would be considered.