There are two main continent-wide Club footballing tournaments that take place in Europe, the most prestigious being UEFA Champions League in which the top club from the top leagues as well as some runners-up and lower (based on their UEFA coefficient ranking) compete. The champions of leagues that aren’t ranked highly in the UEFA coefficient do send their champions into Champions League qualifying campaigns but what about their runners-up and lower? Those clubs along with mid-tier teams from the better leagues (like last year’s Manchester United who qualified by finishing fifth in England the season before) get to play in the Europa League and the runners up and lower in those leagues have to compete in qualifying campaigns as well which brings us to our upset by FC Progrès the fourth place team from the top flight league in Luxembourg over Rangers FC, the third place team in the Scottish top flight.
While neither of these leagues are juggernauts, for perspective, the Scottish League is ranked 27th of 54 UEFA members, in between Kazakhstan and Norway. Luxembourg, by comparison, is 48th, and FC Progrès had never won a European tilt before, and odds were against them after Rangers won the first of the two fixtures 1-0. However with a 2-0 or better victory being what they needed to secure their first win and advancement in Europe the team from a town with a population of roughly 3,000 did just that, representing the ever-present cliche in sports that anything is possible. In his post match interview manager Paolo Amodio said “I cannot believe that we won 2-0 against Rangers. It’s not possible. We made history and I can’t believe it. It’s incredible.”. However where there is jubilation on one side there is heartache on the other and this latest embarrassment represents a new low for the 54 time Scottish Champions, who have struggled mightily after financial problems saw them demoted from top flight down to the fourth division in 2012. It is unclear who FC Progrès will draw in the next round or whether they will continue to wear the glass slipper.
