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Antonio Colak Strike Puts Rangers Into UEFA Champions League Group Stage After 12 Years

Rangers defeated PSV Eindhoven 1-0 in the playoff round while Copenhagen too advanced to the UEFA Champions League group stage with a 2-1 aggregate win over Trabzonspor.

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Rangers players celebrate their win over PSV Eindhoven in UEFA Champions League playoff round.
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Rangers returned to the UEFA Champions League group stage following a 12-year absence and a humiliating financial crisis, advancing through the playoff round by winning 1-0 at PSV Eindhoven. (More Football News)

Rangers will take its place in Thursday's group-stage draw thanks to Croatia forward Antonio Colak'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 (dollars) to each. Copenhagen also advanced Wednesday by holding Turkish champion Trabzonspor to a 0-0 draw after winning the home leg 2-1 last week.

Dinamo Zagreb became the last team to qualify after beating Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt 4-1 after extra time in Croatia. Substitute Josip Drmic scored the decisive goal in the 117th minute and then set up another for Petar Bockaj three minutes later.

Dinamo had led 2-1 after 90 minutes to level the aggregate score 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 for a first Champions League appearance.