Rangers might have benefitted from goal-keeping errors last night, but the 2-0 result against Werder Bremen gives them a great chance to get through to the UEFA Cup quarter finals. Walter Smith will have been pleased by his team's defence, with Christian Dailly and Brahim Hemdani in midfield snuffing out the opponent's attack. Rangers have now gone 19 games unbeaten, with a big enough squad to challenge both in Europe and at home at the same time.
Meanwhile, Celtic were clearly second-best against Barcelona, but the club still saw signs of progress, with Chief Executive Peter Lawwell saying he saw "no reason" why Celtic could not go one better next season and get through to the last eight of the Champions League.
Of course, once you are in the quarter finals of a knock-out competition, anything can happen.
So if Celtic and Rangers both think that getting to the latter stages of the Champions League or UEFA Cup are now realistic rather than hopeful ambitions, what exactly have they been moaning about all this time. The argument was that the SPL was holding them back, that they would never be able to reach their potential while "forced" to compete in poor old Scotland. They lobbied and lobbied to be allowed to join the English Premiership so that they could provide the success that their huge fanbases deserved.
Of course, there is no chance of them doing that now, and it turns out that the SPL isn't all that bad after all. It's not the most exciting or richest league in Europe, but it doesn't seem to be doing too badly for the Old Firm at the moment.
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