Rangers will face Lyon, Sparta Prague and Brondby in the Europa League group stage after the draw was conducted this morning in Istanbul, with the Scottish champions drawn in Group A.
Steven Gerrard’s side are in the groups for the fourth year in a row after squeezing past Alashkert in the playoffs and now have a further six games to look forward to on this season’s European adventure.
Rangers were in pot 2, meaning they avoided being drawn with the likes of Leicester City or PSV Eindhoven but it will be a tough challenge for the Scottish champions to make it through the groups.
Lyon finished fourth in Ligue 1 last season, with the two sides meeting last summer in pre-season with Rangers coming out 2-0 winners.
Rangers and Lyon also met in the 2007/08 Champions League with both meetings between the sides ending with a 3-0 win for the visitors – with the Light Blues going on to the UEFA Cup final that season.
The Light Blues have only faced Sparta Prague once before, meeting in the 1991/92 European Cup, losing on away goals after a Stuart McCall double in the first leg.
Rangers faced their city rivals Slavia last season in a bad-tempered Europa League tie that saw Glen Kamara subjected to racist abuse on the pitch from a Slavia player before several Rangers players were targeted on social media.
Brondby have never faced Rangers in a competitive fixture and are the reigning Danish champions.
After the competition was revamped this season, there are only 32 teams in the groups, rather than 48, and teams finishing in second place will face an additional playoff round against third-placed sides from the Champions League for a spot in the last 16 alongside the group winners.
Should Rangers finish third in their group, it won’t be the end of their European campaign quite yet with third-placed Europa League teams dropping into the Europa Conference League and facing the runners up from the groups in that competition.
Group games get underway on September 16 with the final round of fixtures taking place on December 9.
The full list of fixtures will be confirmed later as fans await the thumbs up from UEFA to travel to away games after being banned from travelling during qualifying.
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