Earlier we talked about the fact Joe Aribo has a big chance to shine in the Champions League next season, qualifiers notwithstanding.
But there’s something more, not just about Aribo, that fans may not be quite aware of with regards Europe’s premier club competition.
And that is the sheer upgrade Rangers are going to face in this competition.
As impressive as our talent and results were in the UEL, the quality of that tournament compared with the UCL is night and day, and one only has to look at the qualifiers to understand the gulf.
Teams like Praha, ourselves, Shakhtar Young Boys, Dinamo Zagreb come merely into UCL qualifying, in some cases as early as round two, and these are teams who got to the last 16 of the UEL. In Zagreb’s, they got to the quarters.
True, these qualifiers are based on country coefficients and CL slots per nation etc, but getting to the group stage alone means beating sides who normally get to the last 16 or even further of the UEL.
This is quite the chasm of upgrade.
We’re not talking about UEL group teams level here in the qualifiers, we’re talking about teams who got to the latter stages.
That is what Rangers have to get past to make their way into the CL group stage.
And that is why Steven Gerrard is very serious about summer recruitment.
As things stand, Rangers have a slim to decent chance of getting to the group stage with our current squad – this is no attack on the quality of our players, but of the levelling up the CL is going to be.
Look at how much better Praha were to us, on a football level – they were plainly superior.
Steven Gerrard will be aware how much of a step up the CL is, and will preparing accordingly.
You don’t earn £30M getting to the group stage easily unless you already have a group stage slot.
And Scotland only ever had that for two seasons, both it being Rangers in 2009 and 2010.
Times have certainly changed…
Although I do understand your point, i’m not 100% sure Praha were actually a better team than us. Yes across two games they beat us and convincingly you would say. However, I do wonder if we were still in a battle for the league at the times of those games could those results have been different? Since wrapping up 55 we haven’t really been the same side until the recent old firm game. We do have the quality in this side to make a decent stab at the CL, I mean look at Porto this season, but further enhancements to the squad can only help and a kind route their would certainly help.
Take your point Broxi but we were pretty clear – as things stand we’d struggle, and summer work is critical. We do like the Porto example though, they weren’t that different this season to last in terms of personnel.
That was essentially what I meant. Although they just added a few folk they ended up as last 16 beating the likes of Juve on route. I’d hope that with some improvements we could try to look at doing something similar. A few of our current squad seem to relish the step up against a better opposition.
True, but bear in mind Andrea Pirlo has absolutely destroyed Juve.
We have to recruit to add some more resilience to the squad and the core team . What we do in all competitions is important, the league obviously then the cups , then Europe more for the financials . Aribo , Kent and Morelos would be very good in Europe as they have already proven. The balance of the team is key if we buy an unstable influence thinking it improves us that ends up destabilising then we will struggle. In SG and his staff , Roos Wilson too we trust. Onwards 56
It will be very difficult for us to get to the group stages. I think we’ve over achieved in the Europa League in recent seasons and I think one of these seasons we are going to hit a bump and get knocked out early. It happened in the Walter years with superstar players and to Ceptic just about every year. I can only hope if we do drop out of the CL we will fall into the Europa League.
When any team comes an plays 6 at the back makes it very difficult to break down. It Wass very clever tactics from praha to deny us the space on the wing. Could we beat them if we were to draw them again? 100% I don’t think they’ll have half of them black players that see them for what they are, racists. Think they were the difference in getting forward, very good footballers they will probably need to replace. It’ll be difficult qualifying, I hope we get as easy an opponent as possible lol.
Comments are closed.