Last Scotsman Standing

With Celtic’s exit from the Champions League in the final seconds in Munich, Rangers once again find themselves as the last remaining Scottish representatives in Europe.

The blog title is a bit tongue in cheek though, given the only Scotsmen in the Rangers lineup these days sit on the bench and they’re hardly the only club this is true for these days. So yes, I did mean Scotsman, singular, on the off chance John Souttar gets the nod today and returns to the starting lineup.

It’s not uncommon, given this is the fifth time in the last six seasons. The other one was technically Hearts in 2022/23 because the Conference League ended on the Thursday when Rangers last Champions League game was the Tuesday and Celtic the Wednesday! You have to go back to 2018/19 to find Celtic going further into Europe than Rangers, and even that was only by one more round.

Whilst all Scottish clubs have contributed to the Scottish coefficient, there’s no doubt Rangers have contributed the most. If you look at Scotland’s position at the moment you see us in fourteenth place. That position can still change and could yet prove important for the number of European places available at the end of next season – we still get five this season as that was set at the end of last season, but we’d already dropped to eleventh place by then which means our champions no longer get directly into the league phase as Celtic did this season.

For further context, twelfth place is the minimum for our cup winners (or third place team in the league depending on who wins the cup) to be guaranteed group stage football. We’re highly unlikely to catch Norway in that position now, so that will disappear after next season. Worse still, sixteenth place only has four places. Denmark, Switzerland and Poland are close behind us currently all with representatives playing in Europe. Poland actually has two in the Conference League!

The coefficient is always made up of five seasons, and 2020/21 is the first of those used in the calculations now. Analysing the points collected you see that Rangers have picked up 49% of the coefficient points (which then get divided by four or five depending on how many teams we have in Europe that season). Celtic have picked up 29% of them, with Aberdeen providing 7%, Hearts providing 6%, Hibernian providing 3% and the remaining 6% coming from Motherwell, Kilmarnock, St Mirren, St Johnstone and Dundee United.

Celtic have contributed slightly more as things stand this season, but that’s mostly due to the bonus points they’ve picked up from the Champions League qualification and progression to the knockout round. Rangers only got the latter as Europa League qualification doesn’t come with bonus points, although admittedly Rangers have picked up more for making it to the last sixteen and not just the knockout round. If it was purely down to results, Rangers have contributed slightly more, with at least two games more to play so still have the opportunity to add more.

Which brings us to this evening! Rangers are in Turkey to face Fenerbahce. The game is live on TNT Sports 2 and kicks off at 5.45pm. Whilst Rangers qualified for this round automatically, Fenerbahce saw off Anderlecht in the knockout round, beating them 5-2 on aggregate with the 3-0 win at home in the first leg being the difference.

Fenerbahce only just made it into the knockout round, finishing 24th in the league phase, just ahead of Braga and Elfsborg on goal difference.

They beat Union St Gilloise 2-1 on match day one. Caglar Soyuncu with the first half opener, a Christian Burgess own goal late in the second half, and a Ross Sykes consolation in injury time.

Next they drew 1-1 away to FC Twente on match day two. Michael Vlap giving the hosts a first half lead, before Dusan Tadic levelled the game with twenty minutes remaining.

They picked up a second 1-1 draw at home against Manchester United on match day three. Christian Eriksen with an early opener, cancelled out by Youssef En-Nesyri early in the second half. Oh, and manager Jose Mourinho got sent off for moaning.

Their first defeat came on match day four when they lost 3-1 away to AZ Alkmaar. Ro-Zangelo Daal with the opener on the hour mark, cancelled out ten minutes later by Youssef En-Nesyri not long after he’d missed from the penalty spot. But Kees Smit put Alkmaar back in front five minutes later and Denso Kasius sealed the win a few minutes from the end.

Fenerbahce got back to winning ways with a 2-1 win away to Slavia Prague on match day five. Tomas Chory had given the hosts an early lead, but Edin Dzeko levelled after the half hour mark and Youssef En-Nesyri got the winner with five minutes remaining of regular time.

Fenerbahce lost 2-0 at home to Athletic Club on match day six. Inaki Williams getting both goals on the night, the first after five minutes and the second just before half time.

Match day seven saw Fenerbahce drew 0-0 at home to Lyon.

And finally on match day eight they drew 2-2 away to Midtjylland. Ousmane Diao gave the hosts the lead midway through the first half, but Youssef En-Nesyri levelled before half time. Edin Dzeko then gave Fenerbahce the lead two minutes into the second half, only for Valdemar Byskov to score a few minutes before full time.

Like Rangers, they started out in Champions League qualification, beating Lugano 6-4 on aggregate in the second qualifying round, but losing 3-2 on aggregate to Lille in the third qualifying round. Like Rangers, as they weren’t champions of Turkey, that meant they got to skip the playoff round and got straight into the league phase of the Europa League.

Rangers, of course, earned the right to skip the knockout round as well with their eighth place finish in the league phase, three goals better off than Bodo/Glimt in ninth. That 2-1 win over Union St Gilloise at Ibrox in match day eight got them the points needed. Nicolas Raskin and Vaclav Cerny with the Rangers goals, Kevin Mac Allister making things a little more nervy in the final few minutes. Thankfully Rangers don’t give up, they’re thirsty for more.

Yeah, that was a dreadful Home Alone reference.

As much as those points mattered, it was also the impressive 4-1 win away to Nice…

And the earlier 4-0 home win over FCSB that got them that top eight finish.

Fenerbahce have hosted Scottish opponents on two previous occasions. The first came in 2001/02 Champions League qualifying where the 2-1 win over Rangers in the second leg proved crucial in tie. Haim Revivo with the early opener, Serhat Akin with a late second, although Fernando Ricksen did give the visitors some hope a couple of minutes later.

The only other time Fenerbahce hosted Scottish opposition was in the 2015/16 Europa League group stage, when they hosted Celtic. By the time match day six came around, Celtic were already eliminated and Fenerbahce only need a draw to stay ahead of Ajax on the head to head. So the 1-1 draw courtesy of Lazar Markovic’s opener cancelled out by Kris Commons was fine for them to progress.

Oh, and who can forget his classic nonsense from the build-up to that game. #ThatsNotAKnife

The first time a Rangers side went to Turkey was in the 1973/74 Cup Winners Cup first round when Ankaragucu were the hosts. Rangers won 2-0 there in the first leg of the tie, Alfie Conn and Tommy McLean with the goals. I can only find the home leg from this tie, so look forward to that next week.

The next trip to Turkey was in the 2000/01 Champions League group stages, where Galatasaray were 3-2 winners on match day three. Bulent Hakin, Hakan Unsal and Mario Jardel had but the Turkish side 3-0 up before Andrei Kanchelskis and Giovanni van Bronckhorst brought the scoreline closer in the last fifteen minutes of the game.

Bursaspor were the next opponents in the 2010/11 Champions League group stage. By the time match day six came around, Rangers were already guaranteed third spot and couldn’t qualifying for the knockout round, so the 1-1 draw with the hosts ended up being the only point the Turkish side got in that campaign. Sercan Yildirim cancelling out Kenny Miller’s opener that night.

Rangers did meet Galatasaray in qualifying for the 2020/21 Europa League, their most recent tie against Turkish opposition, but that was still the dark days of covid when the qualifiers were only a single leg and the luck of the draw meant that tie was played at Ibrox. So we’ll get to that one next week.

The winners of this tie will face the winners of the Roma v Athletic Club tie, which handily doesn’t kick off until 8pm so if you want to see how that’s going then tune in to TNT Sports 5 after the action is finished in Turkey.

Fenerbahce are currently second in the Turkish Super Lig, four points behind Galatasaray and fifteen ahead of Samsunspor with eleven games to play. On Sunday they won 3-0 at home against Antalyaspor. They have no game this weekend as the Super Lig has nineteen teams so someone always has a free weekend and this week it’s theirs.

Rangers are currently second in the Scottish Premiership, sixteen points behind Celtic and sixteen points ahead of Hibernian with nine games to play. On Saturday they lost 2-1 at home to Motherwell. They have no game this weekend as it’s Scottish Cup weekend and Rangers were knocked out of the previous round by Queen’s Park.

Good luck to Rangers tonight! Back next week with more of the same for the second leg.