Rangers handed tough Champions League qualifying draw as historic giants await

The Ibrox side are scheduled to be away to either the Ukrainian runners-up or the Serbian runners-up in the first leg on August 6/7 – a few days after Philippe Clement’s side open their Premiership campaign away to Hearts – with the return match due to take place in Glasgow the following week.

The second leg will be at Hampden, where the Gers are set to play their opening home games of the season because of a delay in materials arriving from Asia which resulted in a hold-up on works to the Copland Road Stand at Ibrox.

The first leg of the second qualifying round tie between Kyiv and Partizan takes place on Tuesday in Lublin, Poland, with the match unable to be staged in Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict with Russia.

The second leg is in Serbia next week. No away fans are allowed to travel to either leg in order to avoid any potential trouble, with Partizan recently having contentiously agreed to take part in a tournament in Russia.

Partizan kicked off their domestic league campaign with a 1-0 win at Napredak last Friday, while the Ukrainian Premier League is due to kick off on the same weekend as the Scottish Premiership, although Kyiv’s scheduled opener away to Oleksandria has been postponed.

If Rangers are successful in their third qualifying round tie, they will then have to come through the play-off round in order to qualify for the Champions League.

Last season, under previous boss Michael Beale, they defeated Swiss side Servette in the third qualifying round before suffering a 7-3 aggregate defeat by PSV Eindhoven in the play-off and then parachuting into the Europa League.