By Andrew Dickson

LEE McCULLOCH believes Rangers' progression to last season's UEFA Cup final will only make it harder for them in this term's Champions League qualifiers.

The Ibrox outfit will find out who they'll play in the second preliminary round tomorrow and there are several tricky sides they could be paired with in Nyon.

Gers are the top-ranked team at that stage and at the moment, only Beitar Jerusalem and MTK Budapest have been confirmed as clubs they could come up against.

There will be 12 other unseeded sides whose identities will be determined once they come through the first qualifying ties in the third and fourth midweeks in July.

Among those vying to get over the first hurdle are past Euro rivals IFK Gothenburg, Anorthosis Famagusta and Valletta.

There are also a number of awkward Eastern European teams Rangers could face, including BATE Borisov, Dinamo Tbilisi, Rabotnicki Skopje and Sheriff Tiraspol.

Whoever they are drawn with, McCulloch knows Walter Smith's men will be looked upon as a major scalp by the side they are tasked with seeing off.

As a result, he says the matches they have to play on July 29/30 and August 5/6 will be far from straightforward.

The 30-year-old said: "It'll be interesting to see who we get in the draw but whoever it is, it definitely won't be easy.

"It is important that between now and the qualifiers, we get our fitness up as much as possible and get some games under our belts.

"People are probably going to make it harder for us in Europe this year because of what we did in the UEFA Cup last season.

"I think we are a bigger name for them to come up against and the way they'll see it is that they'll be getting a result others take notice of if they win.

"That's what we'll have to deal with and we'll need to be ready for that. We've got to look to improve on last year and if we keep doing that, I don't see us having a problem."