CELTIC fans watching The Bill while Rangers party in Seville will stick in the craw.

The association with the Spanish city and Celtic since the 2003 UEFA Cup final when Jose Mourinho’s Porto beat them in extra-time before going on to win the Champions League the following season has long lingered. That Rangers have the chance to eclipse that achievement in this season’s Europa League final will have fans finding a whole new love for Eintracht Frankfurt.

The Hoops' appearance in Seville ended a 26-year exile from European finals for Scottish teams with many then predicting, as now, that such a feat would be unlikely to be repeated. Rangers got there five years later and now the Ibrox side has booked another date with a European final.

Whatever partisan allegiances there are, from a football perspective it is an exceptional achievement. A modern-day rags-to-riches tale, essentially, when consideration is given to the cartel of the Big Five who routinely dominate the latter stages of all European competition.

It will be interesting to note, though, just what impact it has on Celtic. Contrary to popular perception, the current co-efficient was bolstered by the results of both Glasgow clubs across the breadth of the last five years. Under Neil Lennon, the Hoops set a Scottish record with an impressive haul of 13 points in 2019. Since then, however, Europe has been a disappointing arena for the Parkhead side with sobering appearances in both Champions League qualifiers and the group stages of the Europa League.

READ MORE: The sobering Celtic lessons that must be heeded to avoid Champions League exposure

This summer affords the rare opportunity of a breather from the pressures that start to build around June ahead of Champions League qualifiers. Assuming Celtic cross the line in the title race, there is the prospect of group stage football in the Champions League assured. It can be a bruising environment as they well know from their last foray into Europe’s premier tournament when there were some hellish moments to endure as Paris Saint-Germain dished out their heaviest home defeat in Europe.

In fairness to Ange Postecoglou, his remit this summer was ample enough in a domestic sense. Having turned around the 25-point deficit that throbbed humiliatingly last season, he has restored a cohesion to Celtic that had been ripped apart last season. The in-fighting and unbecoming elements that had surrounded the club on and off the park have been muted with the season eclipsing what would have been expected at this stage of his tenure.

The Greek-Australian has been vocal about his philosophy of how he wishes his teams to play and scorns anything that would come under the bracket of pragmatic. It will be intriguing, then, to see what personnel arrive this summer in order to bolster Celtic as they look to make an impact in a European sense this term.

Rangers’ success in 2008 was gained largely by an ultra-defensive approach, a ‘parking of the bus’ as they made it to Manchester. But their Europa League form this term has been bolder as they have progressed through rounds where they had been written off before a ball had been kicked.

In a city in which one team must always be in the mire as the other enjoys success, it raises the rare prospect of a post-season where both sides could claim it to be a successful haul of a campaign.

Inevitably, any progress Rangers make puts a spotlight on Celtic. It raises the bar of expectations in the heady environs of European football and in the incessant one-upmanship of the rivalry between the two sides, it leaves the Hoops with covetous eyes.

Genuine European progress will be the next challenge for Postecoglou.