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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Mark Pirie

Rangers surge past Celtic in coefficient contribution with Ibrox tally ranking above European heavyweights

Rangers have surpassed Celtic to become the top contributing side Scotland's coefficient tally in the last five years - and have just fallen short of topping the European list.

Scottish champions Celtic earned an automatic Champions League group stage spot when they lifted the Premiership title at the end of last season, with Gio van Bronckhorst's men navigating the playoff rounds to join their city rivals among Europe's elite clubs this term. It follows a series of impressive performances in Europe for the Ibrox side, having reached the Europa League final last season.

The push to Seville has now seen Rangers rocket past Celtic in contributions made the Scottish football's coefficient score over the last fives seasons. That means that Brendan Rodgers' 2016-17 campaign, where the Hoops negotiated the playoff rounds to reach the Champions League group stage and faced Borussia Mönchengladbach, Manchester City and Barcelona, has now dropped off the list.

The first season now taken into considerations is the e 2017-18 campaign, when Celtic finished third in their Champions League group containing Anderlecht, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. They dropped into the Europa League, but would crash out in the last 32 to Zenit St Petersburg.

At that time, Rangers were struggling to make their mark on Europe. Pedro Caixinha infamously led Rangers out of Europe against minnows Progrès Niederkorn.

The following season, Rodgers would fail to reach the Champions League before leaving for Leicester, with Neil Lennon steering the Europa League campaign before defeat to Valencia sent the club out at the knockout stages. As Steven Gerrard's era kicked off Rangers reached the group stage of UEFA's second tier competition but did not escape the group.

During the 2019-20 campaign Celtic topped their Europa League group before being defeated by FC Copenhagen over two legs in the round of 32. Rangers went step further under Gerrard, reaching the last 16 before defeat to Bayer Leverkusen.

Lennon's final campaign as Parkhead boss saw his team slump to a disappointing campaign in Europe, finishing bottom of their Europa League group. Across the city, Rangers got to the round of 16 again before defeat to Slavia Prague.

And last season's European exploits painted a stark contrast for the two Glasgow giants. Celtic put in disappointing performances in Champions League qualification, the Europa League group stage before their Europa Conference League tie against Bodo/Glimt.

Bodo/Glimt's Ola Solbakken makes it 1-0 during a UEFA Conference League Play Off (SNS Group)

In contrast, Rangers shrugged off European heavyweights like Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig on route to Seville, where they suffered penalty shoot-out defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt. So how does that break down?

Out of Scotland's 35.2 points picked up in the last five seasons, Rangers have earned 18.13 working out at 51.49 per cent. Celtic have picked up 11.7, working out at 33.24 per cent of the total.

Aberdeen are the next biggest contributor, chipping in with 2.48 points and 7.03 per cent in their bid to navigate the playoff rounds of the Europa League and Conference League. Hibs, Motherwell, St Johnstone and Dundee United have also made small contributions, while Hearts can build their contribution in the Conference League group stage.

Rangers' success in Europe has left them ranking as the second largest contributor to a nation's coefficient tally. Only Ajax with 18.6 points in the Netherlands have amassed more points.

That sees Rangers come in ahead of heavyweights like Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Paris-Saint Germain who also make up the top 10.

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