Rangers suffer significant UCL blow as Bayer lose Europa League final | OneFootball

Rangers’ chances of getting to the Champions League group phase remain uncertain after Bayer Leverkusen failed to secure the Europa League trophy in their first loss all season.

Hopes had been that with Leverkusen getting to next season’s group phase by way of their extra space in the Champions League for Bundesliga title being allocated elsewhere (Benfica) in event of their winning UEL which offers the same prize.

That will not happen, meaning the knock-on effect of that Rangers still not knowing if they will be seeded for the playoff round, if they get there.

Benfica remain seeded in both the third round and playoff rounds, due to Leverkusen’s loss, but Rangers, while seeded in the third round, do not know yet if they will be seeded in the next round, with only Benfica in the seeds and Praha in the unseeded as things stand.

It all depends on the Champions League final as well the final rounds of fixtures in all domestic leagues as they hit their ends to finalise the positions, slots and numbers.

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Well if Bayer had won last night, Benfica would have got their Bundesliga group spot, and Rangers would have taken Benfica’s place in the seeds of the play offs, but obviously that’s not happened.

So Rangers, probably, will have to do things the hard way we’d imagine, don’t we always, in order to try to secure that lucrative £70M in the Champions League guaranteed prize kitty.

We’d bet it’ll be unseeded in the playoffs and we’ll probably end up facing Benfica again. Well, if we get past the third round.

That would be marvellous, wouldn’t it?