RANGERS will aim to reach the Champions League group stage for the first time in 12 years on Wednesday night when they take on PSV Eindhoven at the Philips Stadion.

The playoff double-header is finely poised after a pulsating 2-2 draw at Ibrox on Tuesday evening.

Should Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men emerge victorious the benefits don’t just relate to the prestige of playing the crème de la crème of European football as well as the riches that come with that.

It’ll also mean the Light Blues aren’t playing catch up domestically most weekends.

Should Rangers fail to qualify they’ll automatically drop into the Europa League group stage and will be in action on Thursday nights.

As we all know this means a return to Sunday football in the Scottish Premiership and as a consequence, the pressure will likely intensify given Celtic will likely be in action the day before.

Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean Ange Postecoglu’s men will embark on a prolonged winning run but given their start to the season and ability to take care of teams domestically last term, it’s a scenario that seems likely.

The two Old Firm clubs have made winning starts to the league campaign and it looks like this season could be another close-run title race with little margin for error.

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It’s, therefore, vital Rangers don’t present their arch rivals with an opportunity to put points on the board before they take to the field.

It’s a view echoed by pundit Richard Foster. Speaking to BBC Scotland he said: “I think if it is Europa League for Rangers it will make it tougher. They will always be on the Sunday and I think that will make it tougher.

"That puts more onus on next week to go and get a result against PSV. Yes, we know the financial riches that are available and we know the prestige of playing in the Champions League.

"Celtic more often than not are going to be the Saturday game and Rangers will always be the Sunday game. You are always going to be playing catch up. If Celtic hit a bit of momentum it will be very difficult to always be chasing.”

Psychologically, there's no doubting it would be a huge advantage.

We only have to factor in this weekend’s round of fixtures with Rangers playing on Saturday lunchtime, victory over Hibs at Easter Road would see the Ibrox club reach the summit, for 26 hours at least.

With the Parkhead side hosting Hearts on Sunday, it would increase the pressure to get a positive result against the side who are comfortably the third best in Scotland. Similarly, should Rangers drop points in Leith then the incentives are there to pull away for the first time this season.

Ultimately, this will be a season decided by very fine margins. Both Glasgow clubs look unlikely to drop many points throughout the campaign so any slight advantage that can be gained could prove crucial. And that's just another in the long list of reasons why it's so important that Rangers dispatch PSV on Wednesday night.

This piece is an extract from today’s Rangers Insider newsletter, which is emailed out at 5pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Rangers Review team.

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