Champions League play-offs: Rangers vs Club Brugge facts

Ibrox stages a heavyweight UEFA Champions League play-off tie as Rangers meet Club Brugge in the first leg.

Last match

The only previous European fixtures between the teams were in the group stage of the inaugural edition of the Champions League in 1992/93, when a 1-1 draw in Belgium was followed by a 2-1 home win for Rangers.

Rangers and Club Brugge met only last month in a pre-season friendly at Ibrox, the hosts recovering from conceding two goals inside the first 15 minutes to draw 2-2.

Rangers

Rangers are aiming to reach the Champions League proper for the first time since 2022/23, when they finished fourth in their section having lost all six games.

That was the Scottish side's 11th appearance in the Champions League proper but the only one in the last 14 seasons.

Rangers had qualified via a 3-2 aggregate victory against PSV Eindhoven in the play-offs. Their last appearance at this stage was the following season when they lost 3-7 against the same opponents (2-2 h, 1-5 a); those ties are their sole previous play-offs.

Last season the Gers lost 1-3 on aggregate to Dynamo Kyiv in the third qualifying round, going on to reach the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals.

Rangers have won ten of their 13 European matches against Belgian teams (D1 L2), including all seven at home.

Club Brugge

Club Brugge have participated in the Champions League proper in seven of the last nine seasons, and 11 times overall.

Blauw-Zwart reached the round of 16 last season, losing 1-6 on aggregate against Aston Villa having finished 24th in the league phase and defeated Atalanta 5-2 on aggregate in the knockout round play-offs.

Club Brugge are the only Belgian club to have reached the European Cup final, losing 0-1 to Liverpool at Wembley in 1978.

The Belgian side's last play-off appearance came in 2019/20, when they reached the group stage with a 3-1 aggregate victory against LASK (1-0 a, 2-1 h). That made their record at this stage W1 L1.

Aside from their 1992/93 contests against Rangers, Club Brugge's sole European fixture against a Scottish team was a 1-1 draw at Celtic on Matchday 5 of last season's Champions League.

Key stats

Russell Martin's Rangers kicked off this season in the Champions League second qualifying round, beating Panathinaikos 3-1 on aggregate (2-0 h, 1-1 a) before a 4-2 victory against Viktoria Plzeň over two legs (3-0 h, 1-2 a).

Djeidi Gassama has scored in Rangers' two home qualifiers this season, three goals in total, and has four in the 2025/26 Champions League overall.

Club Brugge were 4-2 aggregate victors against Salzburg in their first European tie this season, in the third qualifying round, winning 1-0 away and 3-2 at home – coming from 0-2 down at half-time in the latter.

That 3-2 second-leg win against Salzburg was Club Brugge's 50th in European Cup history.