Celtic are awaiting their UEFA Champions League qualifier play-off this week. They will welcome Kairat Almaty to Parkhead for the first leg before going on a long away trip to Kazakhstan for the return fixture. Of course, there is no room for excuses. Brendan Rodgers' side must get through this tie. On the other hand, it looks like the Rangers have a mountain to climb.
Russell Martin's side were handed a one-sided defeat by Club Brugge. And to be honest, they did well to keep the scoreline at 3-1. At least that gives them some hope going into the second leg, although it will be pretty difficult to go away to Belgium and get a result, having been thoroughly defeated at Ibrox just a week before.
It would be safe to say that this is not the start to the Martin era that the Rangers fans would have been hoping for. Somewhat surprisingly, the Ibrox club have actually made a decent number of signings this summer. But they continue to struggle on the pitch.
In fact, the Rangers were three goals down inside 20 minutes out and it looked like a number of their supporters had already seen enough. Chris Sutton was quick to point that out, as he wrote:
"I thought Rangers fans don’t do walking away… 20 minutes in and many have given up already…"
Celtic hero Chris Sutton's immediate reaction to Rangers loss vs Brugge
Admittedly, that would have been an enjoyable watch for plenty of Celtic fans. That being said, the Hoops have bigger things to worry about than results at Ibrox at the moment.
They have their own play-off tie coming up against Kiarat. Yes, the Hoops are the favourites going into the game, but it is not a foregone conclusion by any means.
Kairat are a very good team. They would not be here, in this round, if that was not the case. That being said, Celtic need to believe that they can win against anybody going into this game.