Celtic and Rangers learn Europa League draw fate as Glasgow rivals to face same three clubs

Both clubs dropped into Uefa's second tier following their elimination from the Champions League play-off round this week with Celtic losing on penalties to Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan after a goalless draw over two legs while Rangers were beaten 9-1 on aggregate by Club Brugge after suffering a record-equalling 6-0 defeat in Belgium.

The revamped Europa League now features 36 clubs in a single league format, with each club drawn against two opponents from each of the four seeding pots, playing a total of eight matches home and away.

Rangers were drawn from pot one while Celtic were drawn from pot two - the Ibrox club's higher seeding over the Scottish champions down to their superior Uefa club coefficient, helped by their run to the Europa League final in 2022.

The draw, which was generated by a Uefa supercomputer, handed Celtic and Rangers partially identical fixture schedules, with three of their eight opponents shared.

Both will welcome top seeds Roma to Glasgow for the first time with the Italian giants' only previous meetings with Scottish opposition coming against Hibs and Dundee United many years ago.

Roma emerged victorious on both occasions, defeating Hibs 6-0 in a UEFA Cup semi-final play-off in 1961 after drawing 5-5 on aggregate over two legs, while Dundee United were beaten 3-2 on aggregate in the European Cup semi-final in 1984.

Celtic and Rangers will also each host Portuguese side Braga, who are no strangers to Ibrox having visited twice on Europa League duty in the past five years, while Sturm Graz will head to Celtic Park but Rangers will tackle the Austrian champions away from home.

Rangers' remaining fixtures will see them welcome Bulgarian outfit Ludogorets and Belgian side Genk to Govan, while they travel to Portuguese giants Porto, Turkish side Ferencvaros and Norwegian outfit Brann.

Celtic's fourth home fixture is against Dutch side Utrecht while their four away fixtures will see them travel to Dutch side Feyenoord, Serbian champions Crvena Zvezda, Danish outift Midtjylland - who knocked Hibs out of the competition in the second qualifying round - and Bologna, where they will come up against the Italian club’s Scottish captain and talisman Lewis Ferguson.

Celtic and Rangers avoided the prospect of a Battle of Britain clash against either Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest. Celtic and Rangers were also prevented from facing each other with Uefa rules stipulating that clubs from the same country cannot meet in the main league phase, although a first-ever Old Firm derby in European competition would be possible in the knockout rounds if both made it through.

The top eight in the Europa League table advance directly to the round of 16 while sides finishing from ninth to 24th will contest the knockout round play-offs, with the victors going through to the last 16. Teams finishing 25th and below will be eliminated from European competition altogether.

The order of matches, dates and kick-off times will be confirmed by Uefa over the weekend with games set to take place on the following dates: Matchday 1 - 24/25 September 2025; Matchday 2 - 2 October 2025; Matchday 3 - 23 October 2025; Matchday 4 - 6 November 2025; Matchday 5 - 27 November 2025; Matchday 6 - 11 December 2025; Matchday 7 - 22 January 2026; Matchday 8 - 29 January 2026.

Rangers’ Europa League fixtures:

Roma (h)

Porto (a)

Braga (h)

Ferencvaros (a)

Ludogorets (h)

Sturm Graz (a)

Genk (h)

Brann (a)

Celtic's Europa League fixtures

Roma (h)

Feyenoord (a)

Braga (h)

Crvena Zvezda (a)

Sturm Graz (h)

Midtjylland (a)

Utrecht (h)

Bologna (a)