The week Scottish football had its heart broken four times over

Hibs head coach David Gray watched his side come agonisingly close to making history

Scottish footballs heart was broken four times this week, each more cruel and unusual than the last.

Just a few weeks ago, the nation was lifted as Dundee United and Hibernian recorded impressive away wins on the continent, the same day as Scott McTominay and Caroline Weir were given Ballon dOr nods.

What has happened this week is light years away from that. In a bone-shuddering three days, Scottish sides lost 12-3 collectively in Europe as none of Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, or Hibs managed to claim their spot in the highest available European competition.

They say a week is a long time in politics. Well, three weeks ago feels like a parallel universe for those somberly returning home from across the continent.

The week started full of optimism and zeal.

Celtic were facing a decidedly inferior team and overwhelming favourites to progress, Rangers were down but determined not to be out, Aberdeen had fought back at Pittodrie to have even footing in their tie, and Hibs were ready to make some history.

Best-laid plans and all that...

Celtic huffed and puffed against Kazakh side Kairat Almaty, but they were unable to even come close to finding the back of the net in a blunt display.

Regulation time was stuffy, extra-time was turgid, and the penalties were remarkably unremarkable.

Adam Idah, Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda all missed from the spot as they suffered one of the most ignominious defeats in their history.

Next up, Russell Martins Rangers.

Trailing 3-1 to Club Brugge after an almighty shambles in the first leg at Ibrox, they were outsiders but retained a fighters chance if they could find their footing.

Brugge, instead, found the back of the net six times without reply - five coming after Rangers had gone down to 10 men - as many of the travelling punters decided it was time for the head coach to vacate his position.

It was an aggregate scoreline of 9-1 for the tie as fans branded Martin a "coward" with some hastily fashioned banners.

A humbling and a hammering so far.

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We have to feel the pain - Martin on Rangers humiliation

Right Aberdeen and Hibs, over to you.

The former were 2-0 down with half an hour to go in the first leg at Pittodrie against Romanian champions FCSB last week, but fought back to start the second leg with the aggregate score tied at 2-2.

They were heading into the interval in the Arena Nationala level and ready to reorganise ahead of a huge second half.

Then VAR instructed the ref to jog over to the pitchside monitor.

He ultimately showed Alexander Jensen a second yellow card for handball, and awarded a penalty to FCSB.

The hosts scored from the spot and ended up easing their way to a comfortable 3-0 win against a spirited Aberdeen.

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Highlights: FCSB 3-0 Aberdeen (5-2 agg)

Three boxes ticked so far: humbling, hammering, and refereeing controversy.

The wildest game, though, was saved for last.

Hibs do not deserve to play the rest of this season without European football after their qualification campaign.

They were unbeaten away from home against Midtjylland, Partizan Belgrade and Legia Warsaw. David Grays side well and truly mixed it with the big boys.

In 120 breathless Warsaw minutes, they found themselves trailing 1-0 and 3-1 on aggregate, but valiantly rallied to lead the tie 4-3 and were agonisingly close to becoming the first Hibs side to make the main stage of a European competition.

Martin Boyle cracked the bar with a dipping volley from all of 40 yards that would have raised the spirits of a footballing nation, never mind Leith. It may also have raised the roof in the away end.

They scrapped, clawed and dug in with all might, but in the end - after extra time - its domestic duties only this season.

"Thats as good a performance Ive seen in Europe from a Hibs team in my lifetime," said Gray. "Im immensely proud of that. Its hard to take because of that. We need to make sure we come back stronger."

Competitively, yes.

It may take some time for this perspective to set in for Celtic, but the Europa League should offer them a decent crack at knockout football.

The financial gap to the Champions League, though, is undoubtedly going to be a sore one.

Rangers fans would probably go as far as to say they could have been handed quite a few humblings at the top level.

In previous seasons they have enjoyed their Europa League Thursdays, too, and tend to manage a few big results along the way.

The Conference League beckons for Aberdeen, and if they can shake off the cobwebs and replicate their gutsy Bucharest showing again when they face European opposition, theres no reason to suggest they cant make Pittodrie an intimidating place for teams to come - and rise to meet tough tests on their travels.

Clive Lindsay, BBC Sport Scotland

Since finishing ninth in Europe in 2022-23 for a second successive season - the countrys best since seventh in 1988 - Scotlands coefficient has dropped so far that it starts the new campaign in 17th.

Unless that can be improved to 14th - which now looks highly unlikely - Scottish clubs would go into future campaigns in their worst position since 2012.

That would mean European representation dropping from five to four clubs in two years time.

Future champions would have three Champions League qualifiers instead of one, the runners-up would have three Conference League qualifiers - along with the team finishing third - instead of three in the Champions League, while the Scottish Cup winners would have four Europa League qualifying ties instead of one.

Falling out of the top 12 already means that next seasons Scottish Cup winners will enter the Europa League third qualifying round instead of the play-offs and will not be guaranteed group-stage football.

Meanwhile, the team finishing third in the Premiership will now enter in the Conference League in the second qualifying round instead of the same stage of the Europa League.