Scottish Premiership giants Celtic and Rangers could both be playing in Europe after Christmas for the first time in a long while following impressive starts to their Europa League campaigns.
The Hoops have secured a place in the last-32 after securing three wins and a draw to go top of Group E, defeating Serie A giants Lazio home and away.
Rangers need one more victory to book a place in the knockout stages following impressive results and wins against Porto and Feyenoord in Group G, and Aston Villa star and Scotland international John McGinn is delighted with how outstanding the Scottish duo have been in the competition.
The Premiership isn’t highly rated by many English football fans, but the former Hibernian star reckons Celtic’s and Rangers’ most recent results in the Europa League would help convince the critics.
“English people’s view of Scottish football is something I don’t think we’ll change but results like Celtic and Rangers had in Europe a couple of Thursdays ago help at Friday morning training an awful lot,” McGinn told Scotsman following Scotland’s 2-1 win against Cyprus on Saturday.
The Old Firm duo are currently joint-leaders in the Scottish top-flight league table after 12 games, and will both face off in the League Cup final next month.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon and his Rangers counterpart Steven Gerrard have both done their sides a lot of good following their recent Europa League victories, and it will be interesting to see how they fare in the knockout stages against tougher opponents.
After dealing huge blows on Lazio and Porto, Celtic and Rangers have no doubt caught the attention of some English fans, and they now have to keep performing consistently well in Europe going forward if they are to successfully convince everyone of their qualities.
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