Where Hibs’ abject Andorran defeat ranks in Euro hall of ignominy - featuring Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Motherwell and Aberdeen

Hibs have ensured the annual appraisal of Scottish footballing ignominy in Europe has rolled around instantly this summer.

Celtic leave the field of play having lost 1-0 to Licoln Red Imps in 2016.

Entirely unavoidable when the first game for any of the country’s representatives in cross-border competition witnessed a truly mortifying 2-1 defeat away to Andorrans Inter Club d’Escaldes for Lee Johnson’s men. It is an outcome that demands debate over the extent to which this Conference League second qualifying first leg tie lives up – or rather down – to the most abject results posted by Scottish clubs in European football.

Johnson maintained the loss against a team from a country that is almost at the foot of the 55 participating UEFA nations in lying 53rd was not an “embarrassment”. And it is here where context needs to be applied on this grim scoreline, and the lengthy list of such sorry reverses. Should the Leith club overturn the one-goal deficit in Thursday’s Easter Road return then they will avoid lasting damage. It would then be akin to the excruciating 1-0 defeat by Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar that ensured Brendan Rodgers made the most unwanted start to his first Celtic spell seven years ago. A game that deserves a place in Scottish teams’ hall of European infamy, certainly, but not a significant blow-out since they subsequently progressed all the way to the Champions League group stages that summer, a 3-0 second leg victory making amends for their muck-up.

The four continental ties that eclipse these aberrations by Celtic and Hibs – as it stands – do so because all led to Scottish teams being turfed out. Rangers misadventures against Luxembourg part-timers Progress Niederkorn in the first qualifying round of the Europa League in July 2017 were unforgivable. Boasting a one-goal lead from a stuffy Ibrox first leg, to be swept aside in leaking two goals without reply in the tiny landlocked nation was the beginning of the end for Pedro Caixhinha’s ill-fated Rangers tenure. A night remembered for the Portuguese compounding the humiliation by somehow finding himself in a bush arguing the toss with his club’s disgruntled travelling fans.

Dejected Aberdeen players troop off at the final whistle as their Irish guests Bohemians celebrate a sensational UEFA Cup victory at Pittodrie in 2000.

The lifelessness of Motherwell across the two legs of their Europa League second round qualifying exit to Sligo Rovers a year ago still gives the chills. An elimination that marked the end of Graham Alexander’s 18 months at the helm, to lose both legs without scoring against the League of Ireland team was desperate in the extreme. Sligo won the first leg 1-0 at Fir Park and then piled on the misery at the Showgrounds, winning the return match 2-0.

Clubs from across the water have form for giving bloody noses to supposedly more illustrious Scottish counterparts. A stand-out shaming was the one delivered by Bohemians to Aberdeen in the summer of 2000. The Irish part-timers stunned the Dons at Pittodrie, winning the UEFA Cup first round first leg tie 2-1, with Ebbe Skovdahl’s side only winning the Dublin decider 1-0 and thus crashing out on away goals.

Yet, all of these are placed in the shade by the wretchedness that was Hearts being undone in July 2016 by Birkirkara from a Malta. Fair enough, they gave West Ham a scare the year before, but a scoreless draw in the away first leg of their Europa League second round qualifier didn’t seem to create a perilous situation with the return to follow at a pumped-up Tynecastle. But the loss of two goals early in the second period meant the tie ran away from Robbie Neilson’s men, despite pulling a goal back. For me, it makes it tough to see past this evening when judging the lowest of the low.