Champions League Qualifying draw confirmed as Russell Martin era set to start against Greek opponents
Rangers find out their opponent for the second qualifying round.
After the Champions League second qualifying round draw, Russell Martin has identified the opponent Rangers will play in his first competitive game as manager.
After being recently acquired by an American group led by Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises, the Ibrox club is starting a new chapter under their new head coach and new owners.
Prior to leading his club to St George’s Park, the home of the England national team, for a summer training camp, Martin will make his Rangers dugout debut on Sunday, July 6, in a preseason friendly against Club Brugge at Ibrox.
With the opposition now known after the draw, which happened on Wednesday at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, his first real match will come in the second round of Champions League qualifying.
A journey to Greece is in store.
In order to advance to the next round, Rangers will play Panathinaikos. The first leg will be held at Ibrox Stadium on July 22–23, and the second leg will be held in Athens on July 29–30.
Rangers might have faced the top-ranked Greek team, who advanced to the UEFA Conference League’s round of 16 the previous season before falling to Fiorentina.
They play their home games at Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, which can accommodate 16,000 spectators, and were last involved in the Champions League competition 15 years ago.
Rangers, who placed second in the Scottish Premiership the previous season, are on the “league” path of the qualifiers.
In addition, Panathinaikos placed second in the Greek Super League, trailing Olympiacos by 16 points.
Within the following 24 hours, Uefa is anticipated to confirm the precise dates and kickoff timings for the matches.
Rangers would advance to the third qualifying round of the Champions League if they defeat Panathinaikos, but if they win, they will be seeded again and play either Nice (France), Fenerbahce (Turkey), the winner of the second qualifying round matchup with Red Bull Salzburg (Austria), or the victor of the matchup with Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic).
The matches for this round are scheduled for August 5–6 and August 12, with the draw occurring on July 21.
Rangers would advance to the Champions League play-offs on August 19/20 and August 26/27 if they won the third qualifying round, but a loss would drop them into the Europa League play-offs.
However, Rangers would not be seeded and would play the winner of the matches against Club Brugge (Belgium) or Benfica (Portugal), with whom they have a friendly scheduled in July.
On August 4, the play-off round draw will be held. With a victory, Rangers would move on to the Champions League main stage; if they lose, they would fall to the Europa League, where they are expected to be in pot one.
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