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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Mark Pirie

How Rangers could still rake in Champions League millions and who they could face to get there

It wasn't to be for Rangers in the Europa League Final after their heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat.

After their impressive journey to Seville, Eintracht Frankfurt proved a step too far and the trophy goes back to Germany this year.

It also means the Bundesliga side will go straight into the Champions League group stage, while Gio van Bronckhorst's men will be forced to do it the hard way.

Rangers have already amassed anywhere between £10million-£20m from their exploits in UEFA’s second-tier competition but would have earned a further £30m-35m by reaching the group stage of Europe’s premier event.

However, they can still join Celtic in the group stage.

A second placed finish in the Scottish Premiership means Rangers will now enter in the Champions League third qualifying round and would face a further stage – the playoff – if they are successful..

Next season they will not be going through the Champions Path in the qualifying stages.

Rangers celebrate (Getty Images)

Rangers’ superior coefficient means they will be among the seeded sides and will avoid Benfica and Dynamo Kyiv, who are also set to enter at this stage.

The third placed team in France will also join the seeded sides, with Marseille holding that spot in Ligue 1 as it stands.

PSV, Sturm Graz of Austria and Belgian outfit Union Saint Gilloise are currently in the unseeded bracket and could face Rangers.

The champion of Denmark, currently set to be FC Copenhagen, are also set to be among the unseeded sides.

However, a Champions League groups stage place is set to be reallocated to Ukraine once this season’s winners of the competition are known.

This is due to Spain and England's coefficient being the top two in the UEFA rankings, and with either Real Madrid or Liverpool set to qualify automatically for next year's competition.

When one of the sides lift the trophy the 11th placed ranked coefficient side – Shaktar Donesk – will earn automatic qualification.

This domino effect could see the Danes to a playoff, while the Serbian champions are bumped up to the third round – meaning a potential face off with Red Star Belgrade.

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