Champions League: Rangers, Copenhagen advance to group stage

Rangers joins city rival Celtic, which got direct entry as the Scottish league winner, in the lucrative Champions League that is worth tens of millions of euros to each.

Ryan Kent of Glasgow Rangers celebrates at Phillips Stadium on Wednesday in Eindhoven. | Photo Credit: CHRISTIAN KASPAR-BARTKE

Rangers returned to the Champions League group stage following a 12-year absence that included a humiliating financial crisis by winning 1-0 at PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday to advance through the playoffs round.

Rangers will take its place in Thursday’s group-stage draw thanks to Croatia forward Antonio Čolak’s 60th-minute goal in the second leg to seal a 3-2 win on aggregate score.

A decade ago, Rangers was liquidated as a club and restarted in the fourth tier of Scottish football.

Now it joins city rival Celtic, which got direct entry as the Scottish league winner, in the lucrative Champions League that is worth tens of millions of euros to each.

Copenhagen also advanced on Wednesday by holding Turkish champion Trabzonspor to a 0-0 draw after winning the home leg 2-1 last week.

Extra time was being played between Dinamo Zagreb and Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt, with the teams tied 2-2 on aggregate after 90 minutes in Croatia.

Dinamo led 2-1 in the second leg after Glimt won 1-0 in Norway last week. UEFA abolished the away-goals rule last year, which would have sent the Norwegian champion through.