Rangers dumped out of Europe but Brighton progress

Rangers were comprehensively eliminated from European competition after a poor performance against Czech side Jablonec on Thursday. However, Brighton advanced to the Uefa Conference League group phase with ease. Despite winning their first leg against Jablonec, Rangers' Vakhtang Tchanturishvili equalized for the Czechs with the only goal of the game.

Rangers' penalty shootout woes saw Findlay Curtis and James Penrice miss their attempts, ultimately leading to their exit. They were joined in the exit by Brighton, who thrashed Norway's Tromso 4-0, securing a comfortable aggregate score of 4-0. Charalampos Kostoulas, Maxim De Cuyper, and Mats Wieffer scored first-half goals for Brighton, with Olivier Boscagli sealing the win late on.

In other news, Ajax advanced to the league phase with a 5-3 victory over Sion, while Italy's Atalanta avoided a potential upset by defeating Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1-0. Freiburg, who lost in the Europa League final to Aston Villa in May, as well as Monaco and Getafe, also progressed in their respective competitions. Meanwhile, in the Europa League, Trabzonspor suffered a 4-0 defeat by Ferencvaros, ending their campaign with an aggregate score of 5-0, despite being penalized with two red cards.

Benfica and Anderlecht, both previous European competition winners, also advanced to the league phase, eliminating Aarhus and Kairat Almaty respectively.