Both clubs must pass qualification to enter the revised group stage of Europe’s premier competition next season.
Rangers will be hoping for a helping hand from one of their old European opponents this weekend in order to secure a Champions League seeding.
A second-place result in the Premiership will see Gers, who are close to hiring a permanent successor to Philippe Clement following Barry Ferguson’s term as temporary manager, go to the second round of qualification.
While they will be seeded for that round and the third qualification section, if they are successful, the results in Belgium’s top division this weekend will ultimately determine whether the Light Blues will be seeded if they advance to the play-off stage.
What Rangers Need
Rangers need Club Brugge to reclaim their league title on Sunday to secure a seeded position. Brugge is now trailing Union Saint-Gilloise, who the Ibrox side faced earlier this season in the Europa League, by one point heading into the last round of fixtures this weekend.
Brugge hosts fifth-placed Royal Antwerp, and Union Saint-Gilloise welcomes Gent to the Belgian port city. If Union Saint-Gilloise maintains first place on Sunday, they will receive a seeded slot in the play-off round ahead of Gers due to their higher ranking in the coefficient table.
The second qualifying round draw will take place on June 18, with the two-legged tie following two weeks later on July 22-23 and 29-30.
What Celtic needs
Across the city, Celtic’s Champions League qualification play-off seeding will be confirmed this weekend in Croatia. Brendan Rodgers’ team qualified directly for this season’s new group stages, but they know they’ll have to go through a two-legged play-off round to rejoin Europe’s elite in the following edition.
And basketball supporters will be hopeful that either Rijeka or Gennaro Gattuso’s Hadjuk Split can prevent Dinamo Zagreb from being named champions this weekend.
Zagreb, who play their final game of the season at home to NK Varazdin on Sunday, is tied on 62 points with Rijeka but presently leads by goal difference.
However, due to a weird sorting rule in the Croatian Football League, the championship winner will be determined by head-to-head record in the final round of fixtures if the sides are level on points, rather than the difference in goals scored and conceded.
Gattuso’s Split trail the duo by two points, and while they hold the advantage over Zagreb, they fall short against Rijeka. As a result, Rijeka will just need to overcome Slaven Belupo, whom they also face in the domestic cup next week, or better Zagreb’s result on Sunday to become champions for the first time in eight years.
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