THE COLD, hard facts are that between them, the only material thing that Celtic and Rangers have managed to glean from their Champions League adventures to date has been a single point, achieved as Celtic managed a 1-1 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw.
In all, the two Glasgow sides have conceded 16 goals across their six matches, and scored just two. Rangers have yet to score at all.
It reads like proof positive that the step up in class to the Champions League after so many years away has proven a bridge too far for both clubs. Hardly breaking news, of course, and it is true that there have been some harsh lessons dished out to both sides already at the half-way point of the group stages.
But aside from the huge cash injection – which Rangers have been somewhat strangely keen to play down to account for their lack of expenditure in the transfer market – it seems clear who is taking the most from the experience.
Despite having just that single point - and having taken some bitter blows along the way, none more so than the seemingly serious knee injury picked up by captain Callum McGregor in Leipzig on Wednesday night – Celtic have at least remained true to the principles of their manager, Ange Postecoglou.
At times, particularly as Joe Hart fluffed a risky pass straight to Dominik Szoboszlai that led to Celtic conceding at a crucial juncture in Germany, that singular approach has cost them dearly. But there was a pointed nature to Postecoglou’s comments after the game, as he expanded upon the notion that if his team were going to go down, he wants them to go down swinging.
“You can’t play safe at this level,” Postecoglou said. “If you play for survival then that’s all you are going to get. And to survive, you aren’t really getting anywhere.”
He may not have been referring directly to the Rangers performance the previous night, but his point echoed that of many of their fans following their meek surrender to Liverpool at Anfield.
Yes, the now standard post-match post-mortem from the Celtic Champions League games about having to be ruthless at both ends and heeding the lessons at the top level might wear pretty thin with supporters if they do indeed fail to make it into the Europa League knockout stages at the very least.
But while there may be a debate to be had over the merits of Postecoglou’s team trying to go toe-to-toe with teams they cannot compete against financially, particularly when assessing their chances of progression from this group alone in the short term, there is long-term logic behind his uncompromising mantra.
If Celtic are going to compete at this level in time, they won’t do so by abandoning the things that have made them such an improved outfit over the past year or so in the first place. This team has not been built to park the bus.
Neither, it should be said, has Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Rangers side. But they tried it at Anfield in any case. All it led to was the predictable outcome of defeat, with the faux respectability that came with the 2-0 scoreline providing cold comfort to their fans, who had every right to feel cheated by the inability of their team to carry any sort of a goal threat.
What exactly did Rangers learn from the way they approached the match against Liverpool that can benefit them in the long term? That 40-year-old Allan McGregor is a good shot-stopper? Perhaps the only sliver of comfort that came from it was the performance of young defender Leon King, who performed admirably in testing circumstances.
Conversely, while Celtic will be hugely frustrated once again by the chances they missed and the goals they conceded, they are doing enough in their matches to suggest that they are at least capable of competing at this level.
Even against Real Madrid at home, they created opportunities and were right in the contest for an hour. They should have beaten Shakhtar Donetsk, drawing a game they dominated for all but 10 minutes due to the brilliance of Mykhalo Mudryk. Even in the 3-1 loss to RB Leipzig, with key defensive personnel missing, they gave as good as they got until Hart’s howler handed the German side the initiative.
There may be no excuses warranted or even entertained by Postecoglou for his team’s failure so far to reap the rewards from some decent showings, but there are reasons why their points tally has failed to keep track with their level of performance. It is clear what they are trying to do, and what they need to improve upon.
There is also still real hope that they can make the knockout stages of the competition, with the next two matches at home to RB Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk respectively offering them a wonderful opportunity to go into the final game against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu already home and hosed.
As for Rangers? There are questions at the moment over where a goal is coming from at this level, never mind the points required to make it out of what is, admittedly, a brutally tough section. What is it they are trying to do? What is their identity?
Ultimately, both Celtic and Rangers could end up with similar outcomes from their first foray back at Champions League level. But at least Celtic under Postecoglou can reasonably argue they are trying to build towards making a fist of it in the future, and not settle for being cannon fodder en-route to their presumed natural level of the Europa League.
That is a level that van Bronckhorst seems to have accepted. Right from the start, with his admissions that Rangers could not compete after the humbling defeat to Ajax in Amsterdam, his tone has been one that has tipped from understandable realism into defeatism.
On the flip side, depending upon how charitable you are, Postecoglou could equally be labelled as being foolhardy and idealistic, rather than ambitious.
But as well as being a lot more fun to watch along the way, it is an approach that at least hints of something better yet to come.
