THE DRAWS for the final qualfying rounds of the Champions League and Europa League have taken place and Scotland's three representatives now know their route to the group stages of each competition.
Celtic were handed the short straw and were paired against Slavia Prague, while Rangers will face the winners of Greece's Atromitos v Legia Warsaw of Poland. Aberdeen, meanwhile, will face either KAA Gent of Belgium or Cypriot side AEK Lacarna.
Of course, each club still has some way to go before they can plan ahead for the play-offs. Celtic face Romanian champions CFR Cluj, Rangers have a tricky tie against Midtjylland and Aberdeen will face Croatia's Rijeka before they can turn their attention to the final qualifying round.
Looking ahead, though, there should be little doubt surrounding the scale of the challenge that Celtic are facing. Slavia Prague are no mugs - they reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League last season and were only eliminated when they lost out 5-3 on aggregate to eventual winners Chelsea.
READ MORE: Rangers must be at their very best for Europa League tie against Midtjylland
The Czech club claimed a few scalps in Europe last season - Copenhagen, Bordeaux and Zenit St Petersburg all lost to Slavia Prague in the group stages - but none was more impressive than Sevilla. The perennial winners of the Europa League were dumped out of the competition in the last 16 after Slavia recorded a mightily impressive 6-5 aggregate win. They must be treated with caution and respect - the last team to overcome the Spaniards in the Europa League knockout rounds before Slavia Prague did were Porto back in 2011.
Rangers fans, meanwhile, will be breathing a sigh of relief after the club avoided Wolves and PSV Eindhoven in their draw. Legia Warsaw will be the favourites to progress to the play-off at the expense of Atromitos. The Polish side have been knocked out during the qualifiers in each of the last two seasons, but reached the last 32 of the Europa League in 2017 after finishing in third place in their Champions League group and dropping down. Havng said that, trips to Poland are rarely straightforward affairs and even though the draw is favourable for Steven Gerrard's team the result is far from certain.
Aberdeen were drawn against the winners of Gent's tie with AEK Larnaca, presenting Derek McInnes' side with a difficult - but winnable - fixture in the play-offs. The Belgians - who recently recruited Mikael Lustig from Celtic - are expected to progress to the final round of qualifying and while they are no pushovers by any means, Dons fans will be pleased to have steered clear of Espanyol and Dutch giants Feyenoord.
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