THERE will be no Glasgow hat-trick for Roy Chipolina. But he is still dreaming of a historic Old Firm double ahead of a single game shot at glory.

The 37-year-old has already graced Hampden and Parkhead and if circumstances in the game and the world were different, he would have the opportunity to pull on his boots at Ibrox as well.

Chipolina was part of the Gibraltar side that lost 6-1 to Scotland five years ago as Lee Casciaro stunned Hampden and Gordon Strachan’s side. Just 12 months later, the same man would create history as Lincoln Red Imps won at home before Brendan Rodgers avoided a humiliating European exit with a 3-0 success at Celtic Park.

There will be no second chances for Steven Gerrard on this occasion, however. If it all goes wrong in the shadow of The Rock tomorrow night, his third crack at the Europa League with Rangers will be over before it has really started.

The one-legged nature of the qualification ties has added a new dynamic to the rounds that Rangers will have to tick off if they are to reach the group stages. For Chipolina, the chance to create collective history is more significant than the opportunity to achieve another personal milestone.

“First of all, you dream of a tie like this and then you hope you are going to get the chance to travel to Glasgow to play at Ibrox,” Chipolina told Herald and Times Sport.

“I have played at Celtic Park, played at Hampden Park and I would have loved to have gone to Ibrox and played there. Given the circumstances, it is a one leg tie.

“From a personal point of view, wanting to play there and play Rangers there, you are disappointed. But from a football point of view and from looking to get through the tie, you want the game to be played here, especially over one leg.

“Talking football, we are glad that the game is being played here because that gives us a chance. It is not an advantage as such. If we are going to go through, the pitch will help us.

“We haven’t had such an exciting tie for Lincoln since the Celtic game a couple of years ago. This excitement is no different, it is another massive club coming to Gibraltar and everyone is thinking ‘can lightning strike twice?’. We think it can.”

That victory over Celtic four years ago was christened as the ‘Shock of Gibraltar’ and will undoubtedly go down as one of the most embarrassing defeats in the Hoops’ history.

Rangers cannot afford to follow suit. Their win over St Joseph’s last term was ultimately straightforward and they will return to Victoria Stadium under no illusions about just how costly a shock Europa League exit would be.

Chipolina said: “We know how tough, how almost impossible, this fixture is for us but it happened once before and the whole of Gibraltar is hoping it can happen again.

“It would be another historic night if it were to happen. We do take a bit of confidence because we have done it before, so why can’t it happen again?

“We are going to have to be at our very, very best and hopefully Rangers have a poor game. “We know how hard a tie Rangers will be and we knew how hard a tie Celtic would be. We literally just take it 10, 15 minutes at a time. When we got to half-time and it was 0-0 we were thinking ‘this is not bad, we are doing quite well’ and then we got the goal just after the break.

“You go into shock and you realise you have something to hold on to so you park the bus and hope for the best. We rode our luck.

“They hit the bar, the post, it was cleared off the line. In football, anything can happen and it happened on that day.”

It is a twist of fate that Rangers find themselves up against Red Imps and returning to where their memorable European adventure started last season as they set off on another campaign that could offer so much, both on the park and off it.

Excitement has built in Gibraltar ever since the draw was made last month and Chipolina – who works as a customs officer in the British territory – is eager to harness the local feel good factor even if there will be no support there to witness another huge night for Lincoln.

Chipolina said: “From a football point of view, I suppose the public recognise you a bit more. But Gibraltar is a small place and a small community, a very close community.

“We are very humble players. Everyone comes to watch us – family or friends – and you don’t think more of yourself because you played in the game against Celtic. It was a very surreal moment in my life, in my career and for the club.

“You do get extra attention when a tie like this comes around and everyone is getting very excited about Rangers and asking if history can repeat itself. It is all fun.

“This is massive for Gibraltan football as a whole. We didn’t think it would get bigger than Celtic last time around and now we have Rangers a couple of years later.

“They are two massive clubs in Europe, two very well respected clubs in Europe and the attention it gets is crazy. When we beat Celtic, the media attention around the world was absolutely incredible.

“It was beyond surreal. As this game is getting closer, that is increasing all the time and if we were to do it again it would be so historic and so crazy.”