Former Rangers striker Ally McCoist touched on Celtic beating Copenhagen tonight, and he claimed he wants his old club to face the Hoops in the final.
Should Celtic knock the Danish champions out this evening, it sets up a potentially intriguing scenario. Neil Lennon and Steven Gerrard’s Rangers could lock horns in a potential last-16 clash. However, in addition to that, a victory for Celtic would also be a further boost for the coefficient.
Celtic are the clear favourites to progress tonight and potentially set-up that mouth-watering tie, but McCoist has stated that he doesn’t want to face us in the last-16.
Instead, speaking on TalkSPORT this morning, the former Ibrox figure stated that he wants us in the final instead.
“Genuinely if Celtic go through tonight then the coefficient which we really need to work on – if Celtic win tonight the coefficient will go through the roof, which is great for Scottish football.
“I don’t want Celtic (in the last-16). I just don’t want Celtic, because I want them in the final! I hope it’s not an Old Firm European last-16.
“But I tell you who I would quite like – a Man United or something like that. A genuinely big game for Rangers.”
Glasgow derby last-16 would be surreal
McCoist is living in a bit of a fantasy world if he’s hoping Rangers face Celtic in the Europa League final. There’s a long way to go before either side can think about that, even if Celtic still clearly have a better squad.
However, a win against Copenhagen tonight and a dream last-16 tie would be on the cards. You simply have to fancy it too. What bragging rights we would have if we ended their season by knocking them out of Europe ourselves. It would be special, and a first in European football history to have both teams square off against each other.
Rangers will take heart from their Betfred Cup and Parkhead performances against us. However, before anyone forgets, we’re 12 points clear at the top of the league and have two wins over Rangers to their one against us. We’re still the team to beat, and you would have to fancy us over two legs against them.
It would also likely be one of the easiest ties we could hope for too. With the likes of Inter Milan, Roma, Bayer Leverkusen, and Red Bull Salzburg just some of the teams remaining – getting Rangers certainly wouldn’t be a bad outcome.
Of course, we can’t forget there’s a job to do tonight. We’ve made this mistake before this season when we looked ahead to the Champions League playoff round before finishing the tie off against Cluj. Look what happened there. Copenhagen deserve total respect tonight, and you can bet Neil Lennon will give them exactly that.
In the hopeful event that we progress to the last-16 this evening, who would you want in the next round? Would you take Rangers beyond everyone else? Perhaps you can’t be bothered with the aggro that two-legged affair could bring. Let us know your thoughts on the discussion forum below.
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