The week Scottish football had its heart broken four times over

This week, Scottish football’s heart was broken four times, each more cruel and unusual than the previous.

Just a few weeks prior, the nation was awarded the accolades Scott McTominay and Caroline Weir received as recipients of the Ballon d’Or nominations for impressive away victories on the continent thanks to Dundee United and Hibernian.

The events of this week are far beyond that. Scottish teams lost 12-3 overall in Europe in three heartbreaking days as neither Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, or Hibs were able to claim victory in the highest-available European competition.

The week started out enthusiastic and eager.

Rangers were down but determined not to be out, Celtic were facing a decidedly inferior team, and Hibs was on the verge of making history.

Best-laid plans and everything …

Kazakh side Kairat Almaty had Celtic huffed and puffed, but Celtic couldn’t even close the end of the net in a brutal display.

The penalties were remarkably unremarkable, extra-time was turgid, and regulation time was crammed.

One of their worst defeats in history saw the inclusion of Adam Idah, Luke McCowan, and Daizen Maeda all miss out on the spot.

Russell Martin’s Rangers are next.

After a devastating slog from the first game at Ibrox, they were outsiders but still had a chance to win if they could find their footing. They were 3-1 winners to Club Brugge.

Instead, Brugge repeatedly hit the back of the net without a response as many traveling punters decided it was time for the head coach to step down.

Fans criticized Martin as a “coward” with some hastily crafted banners, and the scoreline for the tie was 9-1 overall.

Right Aberdeen and Hibs, hello.

The former, who lost to Romanian champions FCSB last week after going 2-0 up in the first leg, rallied to win the second leg with the aggregate score tied at 2-2.

They were prepared to reorganize ahead of a significant second half as they approached the Arena Nationala level.

The ref was then given a pitch-side jog by VAR.

In the end, he gave FCSB a penalty and handed Alexander Jensen a second yellow card for handball.

So far, there have been three boxes in the box: controversy over refereeing, and humbling.

However, the wildest game was ultimately saved.

After their qualifying campaign, Hibs do not deserve to play in Europe for the remainder of the season.

Midtjylland, Partizan Belgrade, and Legia Warsaw did not disappoint. The big boys were well and truly integrated by David Gray’s side.

They were agonisingly close to becoming the first Hibs side to reach the semi-finals of a European competition after 120 breathless Warsaw minutes of trailing 1-0, 3-1 overall.

A diving volley from all 40 yards by Martin Boyle would have lifted Leith’s spirits, never mind the spirit of a footballing nation. In the other end, it might have raised the roof.

It was all they could muster to scrape, claw, and dig in with all their might, but ultimately, this season’s domestic duties came to an end.

Competitively, yes.

Celtic may need to adjust this perspective before they can start playing in the Europa League.

However, the Champions League’s financial gap is undoubtedly going to be painful.

Rangers fans would go as far as to claim that the team could have received a number of humble tasks.

They’ve managed to get some impressive results on their Europa League Thursdays in the past, and they’ve also had fair enjoyment of them.

BBC Sport Scotland Clive Lindsay

Scotland’s co-efficient has dropped so much that it begins the new campaign in 17th place after placing ninth in Europe in 2022-23 for a second successive year, which is the nation’s best since 1988.

Scottish clubs would enter subsequent campaigns in their worst position since 2012 unless that can be raised to 14th, which seems highly unlikely.

In two years, representation would drop from five to four clubs.

Future champions would receive three Champions League qualifiers instead of just one, runners-up would receive three Conference League qualifiers, and third-place finishers would receive three, as well as Scottish Cup winners would receive four Europa League qualifiers instead of just one.

The elimination of the top 12 already leaves the Scottish Cup winners with the chance to enter the third qualifying round of the Europa League rather than the play-offs and not be guaranteed group stage football.