Rangers began their Europa League campaign in perfect style with victory over Malmo in Sweden.
Tomorrow night, against Lyon, Philippe Clement's men will look to make it six points from six in the revamped league phase format in the European competition.
Under the new league system - which replaced the group stage - clubs will play eight matches against two clubs from each of the four seeding groups.
Rangers first played Malmo and next face Lyon at Ibrox before fixtures against FCSB, Olympiacos, Nice, Tottenham, Manchester United and Union Saint-Gilloise.
The league phase will determine the 24 clubs advancing into the latter stages of the competition with the other 12 clubs exiting the tournament and not falling into the Conference League.
The top eight clubs from the league phase will advance directly to the round of 16 without featuring in the play-off round.
Ideally, Rangers would want to take a top eight finish and avoid the play-off. However, a crucial ruling in the new format could come into play should Rangers finish between ninth and 24th.
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As pointed out on the Scotland's Coefficient X account - and detailed in Article 19 of the UEFA Europa League rulings - clubs will enter a draw for the play-off round in groups of two.
Clubs finishing ninth and 10th will face clubs 23rd or 24th, a 22nd-place finish would mean the possibility of playing either the 11th or 12th-placed club in the league phase and so on.
In theory, a better league phase placement should mean an 'easier' draw in the play-off round.
Furthermore, a critical detail for Rangers comes in Article 19.02 (c) where it is stated that the seeded clubs (those 9th to 16th) will play the return leg matches in the play-off round at home.
The UEFA ruling - tweaked from previous draw-based home and away leg decisions - means should Rangers finish between ninth and 16th then they would have a guaranteed home match in the second leg of the play-off round.
Rangers boast a strong record in the Europa League when playing at Ibrox in recent history with a number of memorable outings en route to the final in 2022.
🏴🇫🇷 RANGERS V LYON 🇫🇷🏴 📺 Thursday at 20:00 on TNT Sports 3 🏟️ Rangers🔵 continue their Europa League campaign with the first of 4 home matches. Pierre Sage’s🇫🇷 team sit 11th in Ligue 1 after a mixed first 6 matches this season – 2 wins and 3 losses. A good omen for Rangers… pic.twitter.com/KxalL7iKfv
— Scotland’s Coefficient (@scotlandscoeff1) October 2, 2024
According to Scotland's Coefficient, a points total of nine or 10 points should be enough to make the top 24 of the league phase - going off 15,000 simulations of the tournament.
It is likely between 14 and 16 points would be necessary to make the top eight of the league phase and progress to the round of 16 without featuring in the play-off.
Rangers Europa League fixtures
Malmo 0 Rangers 2
Rangers vs Lyon - October 3
Rangers vs FCSB - October 24
Olympiacos vs Rangers - November 7
Nice v Rangers - November 28
Rangers v Tottenham - December 12
Manchester United v Rangers - January 23
Rangers v Union SG - January 30
