The dust has hardly settled on a season that saw Aberdeen, Rangers and St Johnstone earn European places but the reward for the trio's hard work is an early start to action as they look to progress in Europa League qualifying.

Rangers and St Johnstone will both enter in the first qualifying round but Aberdeen get an extra fortnight's rest and enter at the second stage.

Europa League qualifying hasn't been kind to Scottish sides in recent years and all three sides will be hoping for the kindest possible draws as they aim to clear four hurdles and reach the group stages.

We've laid out the key dates along the way and identified some of the best and worst possible outcomes, as well as explaining how the all-important draw works.

The first qualifying round takes in 100 teams from across the continent, opening up opening up a vast range of possible destinations for the Scottish teams.

The good news for Rangers and St Johnstone is that both will be seeded at this stage. St Johnstone's previous excursions see them as the 16th highest-ranked team in the draw, while Rangers go in with Scotland's country co-efficient of 3.785 which is enough to keep them on the right side of the draw and away from the likes of Maccabi Tel Aviv, FC Midtjylland and Lech Poznan.

That still leaves 50 possible opponents but by the time the draw comes around that list will have been pared down for each side. UEFA will split the draw into groups to simplify the process and keep teams from the same country apart. It's expected that 10 groups of 10 teams will be created but the governing body won't announce the groupings until the day of the draw.

The list below shows all the teams St Johnstone or Rangers could face at the end of June. Judged solely on co-efficients the toughest draws would be Bosnia's Siroki Brej or Luxembourg's Fola Esch with the other end of the scale offering Faroes side KI Klaksvik or a trip to Gibraltar to face St Joseph's FC.

Gibraltar's other representatives in this round are already well known to Scottish football fans with Lincoln Red Imps being one of very few sides to defeat Celtic in a competitive match last season.

Other notable possibilities are short trips to Wales to play Bala Town, Connah's Quay or Bangor City, a visit to play Derry City, now managed by former Kilmarrnock boss Kenny Shiels or a tie against FC Prishtina, who will mark a first by competing under the banner of the Kosovan FA.

Possible opponents for Rangers and St Johnstone:

The 50 sides who progress from the first qualifying round go into the pot along with 16 more teams including Aberdeen.

The draw is seeded based on co-efficients and because the second round is being drawn on the same day as the first the team progressing from the first round will take the co-efficient of the side they defeated if it is higher than their own.

For example, if Maccabi Tel Aviv (co-efficient of 23.375) are knocked out by St Joseph's FC (co-efficient 0.500) then the side from Gibraltar go into the next round with a co-efficient of 23.375, which would put them in as a seeded team.

Aberdeen go straight in as seeds, while St Johnstone would be seeded if they get through. Rangers' co-efficient, however, would mean they would be unseeded in the second round.

Again, the teams will be split into groups, this time three groups of ten and three of 12 teams. Teams from the same country will be kept apart.

As an unseeded side, Rangers could draw any of the 21 top-seeded sides from the first qualifying round, or the side that defeated them, in addition to the highest-ranked sides entering at the second stage.

That opens up the possibility of drawing Galatasaray, Astra Giurgiu or Lech Poznan at the tough end of the list or the easier-on-paper scenario of facing Panionios, FK Ventspils or Odd Grenland.

Aberdeen and St Johnstone have a high chance of facing a team that's come through the first round with 29 of the 33 possible opponents being the winners of earlier ties.

Of the direct entrants, Israel's Bnei Yehuda are the highest-ranked but greater danger many come if the seeds from the first round go through and Kairat Almaty will be a name Aberdeen will want to avoid, having lost to the Kazakh side two years ago.