Rangers were knocked out of Europe by minnows Progres Niederkorn on Tuesday, almost a year since Celtic were humiliated on the continent.
Ex-Celtic striker Tony Cascarino has told Talksport he does NOT believe that Rangers’ defeat against Progres Niederkorn was as bad as the Bhoys’ against Lincoln Red Imps a year ago.
Another former Celtic goalscorer, Chris Sutton, had earlier described Rangers’ 2-0 reverse in Luxembourg, which saw the Ibrox side eliminated from Europe at the very first hurdle, as ‘totally embarrassing’ – and was certainly not alone in his assessment.
Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha
But in the eyes of Cascarino, who endured a difficult spell at Parkhead during the early 1990s, Celtic’s slip up in Gibraltar still reflects WORSE on the Scottish champions.
Speaking as a guest host on Wednesday’s Jim White show, the Irishman said: “Personally, I think Celtic’s is worse because of the rankings of Gibraltar in the world – club sides – is much lower than Luxembourg.
“Luxembourg football nationally is much better. Brendan Rodgers had a much poorer team to face, if you look at Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic team they are way ahead of Rangers.”
Celtic recovered from their Red Imps setback to win the second leg 3-0 at Parkhead and went on to make the Champions League’s group stage for the first time in two years.
But Cascarino added: “A lot of Celtic fans are justifying the result because they got through the tie and had a decent season.
“To me, it was a much more shocking defeat, the opening game. I could not believe when I saw the result that Celtic went to Gibraltar and got beat.”
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers
To add to Rangers’ embarrassment, their opponents had never won a European fixture prior to Tuesday night and had only ever scored once in continental competitions.
As such, the position of Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha is already being questioned – barely four months into his Ibrox tenure.
Whose result was worse – Celtic or Rangers?
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