Rangers face Man Utd & Spurs as Hearts meet Copenhagen

Rangers will visit Manchester United and host Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham in the league phase of the Europa League, while Hearts will visit Kilmarnock's conquerors Copenhagen in the Conference League.

The Ibrox side also host France's Lyon, Union Saint-Gilloise from manager Philippe Clement's Belgian homeland and Romania's Steaua Bucharest.

Rangers' other away fixtures are against Swedes Malmo, French side Nice and Greeks Olympiacos.

Steven Naismith's Hearts will also host German side Heidenheim, Cypriots Omonia and Moldova's Petrocub and visit Belgium's Cercle Bruges and Dinamo Minsk of Belarus.

The fixture dates for both competitions will be announced on Saturday.

Matchday one in the Europa League will be played across 25 and 26 September, with matchdays two and three on 3 and 24 October, respectively.

Further games follow on 7 and 28 November and 12 December, before the final two matchdays on 23 and 30 January.

Australian Postecoglou will return to Glasgow, having ended a successful two-year spell in charge of Celtic in 2023.

Rangers, who were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by Dynamo Kyiv, beat USG over two legs in that competition in the 2022 qualifiers but were eliminated by Malmo at the same stage in 2021.

Lyon won at Ibrox in a 2021 Europa League group game before the sides drew in France later in that campaign.

The Conference League matchdays will be on 2 and 24 October, 7 and 28 November and 12 and 19 December.

Hearts will visit the Danish capital to take on the side that beat Kilmarnock over two legs in the Conference League play-off round.

How does Europa League work now?

All the teams will be in one 36-team league phase, as compared to the past format of eight four-team groups. It means more matches between the biggest teams.

Teams who finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the last 16, while those who place ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout play-off for the chance to join them.

From the last 16 onwards, the Europa League will continue to follow its existing format.

Each team will play a minimum of eight - instead of six - matches.

The league phase will now run until the end of January instead of ending before Christmas.

How does the Conference League work now?

Hearts had been in the Europa League play-off round but lost 2-0 on aggregate to Viktoria Plzen.

Like the Europa and Champions League tournaments, 36 teams will compete in the new league phase of the Conference League.

However, teams in the third-tier competition will play six games.

The top eight progress directly to the round of 16, the next 16 compete to join them while the bottom 12 are eliminated.