Will Scottish teams avoid European coefficient abyss?

Big-time football is back as three of Scotland's five representatives begin what appears to be an increasingly hazardous journey through European qualifiers.

Rangers got off to a great start with a 2-0 win over Panathinaikos in the Champions League's second qualifying round.

On Thursday, Hibernian visit Midtjylland in the same stage of the Europa League, with Dundee United entertaining Strassen in the Conference League.

Celtic are seeded in Champions League play-off round, while Aberdeen await at the same stage of the Europa League.

But what are the chances of the others at least joining them in the play-offs and how crucial might it be for Scottish clubs' standing in Europe?

Scotland at coefficient cliff edge

As the Scotland's Coefficient website states, the country's clubs face the European abyss if they do not perform well enough this season to improve their joint standings.

Since finishing ninth in Europe in 2022-23 for a second successive season - the country's best since seventh in 1988 - Scotland's co-efficient has dropped so far that it starts the new campaign in 17th.

Unless that can be improved to 14th, Scottish clubs would go into future campaigns in their worst position since 2012.

That would mean representation dropping from five to four clubs in two years' time.

Future champions would have three Champions League qualifiers instead of one, the runners-up would have three Conference League qualifiers - along with the team finishing third - instead of three in the Champions League, while the Scottish Cup winners would have four Europa League qualifying ties instead of one.

Falling out of the top 12 already means that next season's Scottish Cup winners will enter the Europa League third qualifying round instead of the play-offs and will not be guaranteed group stage football.

Meanwhile, the team finishing third in the Premiership will now enter in the Conference League in the second qualifying round instead of the same stage of the Europa League.

The pressure is on this season's five representatives, with Scotland's Coefficient predicting: "We will not finish in the top 15 unless we have four teams in the league phase."

Celtic and Aberdeen are guaranteed their places, so what are the chances for the first three as they start their campaigns?

Rangers open with fine victory

Rangers head coach Russell Martin applauds fans at Ibrox

Rangers have given themselves a great chance of reaching the Champions League third qualifying round with a 2-0 first leg win over Panathinaikos at Ibrox.

The Greek Superleague runners-up caused the home side problems before Findlay Curtis opened the scoring, while Djeidi Gassama added a fine second goal when the visitors were down to 10 men.

It was a first defeat in eight games against Scottish opponents for the Athens club, who are stacked with international players.

If new head coach Russell Martin can safely negotiate the second leg then a trip to Switzerland could be next since Servette picked up a 1-0 win away to Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic.

Besiktas of Turkey or Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine present arguably more formidable opponents in the Europa equivalent should they come unstuck in Greece.

If Rangers do reach the Champions League play-offs, the likes of Benfica, Brann, Club Brugge, Nice, or Salzburg will still need to be overcome but there would be a Europa League safety net and excellent recent form in that tournament has taken the Ibrox club to a continental ranking of 30th.

Midtjylland favourites against Hibs

Hibs will head to Denmark as underdogs given their relative recent European results.

The Leith side have failed in six attempts to progress through the qualifiers in the last 15 years.

Hosts Midtjylland, meanwhile, navigated two rounds before losing to Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League play-offs last season - then finished 20th in Europa League, qualifying for the play-off round, where they lost to Real Sociedad.

That explains why the Danes are ranked 71st in Europe - 166 places above Hibs.

Having lost 7-3 on aggregate to Rangers in Europa League qualifying in 2019, their improvement was such that they knocked Celtic out of the Champions League qualifying, 3-2 on aggregate, two years later.

Thomas Thomasberg is in his second spell as head coach and has gathered together a young squad with international experience from around the world.

Up front he has Poland's Adam Buksa, South Korea's Cho Gue-sung and Guinea-Bissau's Franculino Dju, who is reportedly of interest to several Premier League clubs.

Zambia's Edward Chilufya is joined in midfield by Denil Castillo, who has just made his Ecuador debut, while another 21-year-old, winger Dario Osorio, plays for Chile and centre-back Lee Han-beom recently debuted for South Korea.

Although Kevin Mbabu did not make it even to Rangers' bench on loan from Newcastle United in 2015, the 30-year-old right-back has since played for Young Boys, Wolfsburg and Fulham while earning 25 caps for Switzerland.

Midtjylland are captained by former Brentford centre-back Mads Bech Sorensen, while veteran goalkeeper Jonas Lossl also played for the Premier League club, as well as Huddersfield Town in the English top flight.

If David Gray's side can upset the odds, their next opponents, Fredrikstad of Norway, have limited European pedigree and currently sit eighth in the Eliteserien.

Drop to the Conference League and Hibs will face one of two sides who finished runners-up in their domestic league - Oleksandriya of Ukraine or Partizan Belgrade of Serbia.

No room for 404 error by United

Rapid Vienna lost to Djurgarden in last season's Conference League quarter-finals

United will be kicking themselves if they do not at least reach the Conference League third qualifying round.

It is nearly 40 years since the Tannadice club followed up their place in the European Cup last-four by reaching the Uefa Cup final.

They have failed to win a European tie in six attempts since beating Principat of Andorra in 1997 but Strassen of Luxembourg are a lowly 404th in the club rankings - 166 places behind the Tangerines.

Strassen have only played one other tie in European competition - when they lost 5-0 on aggregate to Finnish side Kuopion Palloseura (KuPS).

Arno Bonvini's side have since finished runners-up in their domestic league - their best performance.

Jim Goodwin's United ought to progress, but Rapid Vienna, who reached the Conference League quarter-finals last season, or Decic, who won the Montenegrin title two seasons ago, lie in wait.

Celtic will at least drop to the Europa League and Aberdeen to the Conference League if they lose their play-off ties.

Rangers should follow since they have a route to all three competitions but getting the four places Scotland's Coefficient predicts is necessary to avoid a European "cliff edge" is going to take an upset or two along the way.