Celtic will be seeded in Friday’s fourth round draw for the Champions League as they attempt to reach the group stage for the first time in four years.
Second half goals from Joe Ledley and Georgios Samaras saw off HJK Helsinki tonight to go through on a 4-1 aggregate but Victor Wanyama will miss the next match after picking up two yellow cards against the Finns.
CFR Cluj are the highest ranked side that Celtic could be drawn against with the Roumanian champions winning home and away against Czech side Liberec to make it to the final qualifying round.
Swedish side Helsinborgs are another option and look to be in form after beating Slask Wroclaw 6-1 on aggregate including an impressive 3-0 win in Poland. Domestically Helsinborgs haven’t been so strong and are sitting in sixth place after 17 matches.
Maribor of Slovenia wouldn’t be overawed returning to Glasgow after dumping Rangers out of the Europa League last season but are relatively untested this season after enjoying a comfortable 5-1 aggregate win over F91 Dudelange from Luxemburg.
Israeli side Hapoel Kiryat Ahmona deserve respect after putting Zilina out in the second round then seeing off Neftci PFK of Azerbijan 6-2 on aggregate after winning the first leg 4-0 at home.
Cypriot side AEL Limassol will be looking to emulate APOEL who reached the last eight of the competition before losing out to Real Madrid. AEL beat Partizan Belgrade home and away to reach the fourth round having lost both of their previous European Cup ties back in 1968.
The draw for the fourth round will be made on Friday in Nyon starting at 11am Celtic Park time.
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You would think Celtic would be good enough to beat anyone of these teams. It’s looking more likely that Celtic will be in the champions league, where they belong. Can only be good for Celtics young players and also good for Scottish football, after the shame Sevco have heeped on our game.
Who cares about scottish football I only care about Celtic what has scottish football ever done for Celtic
It gives Celtic a platform to play in Europe. Please remember we got support last year to be reinstated in Europe. Your comment is very shortsighted.
If you want to play qualifying rounds each year then good for you, Me I would love us to go on a great run which benefits scotlands co efficient and raises the profile of our league, that can only be good for our team.
It’s that kind of narrow minded view that got Rangers fans hated, in there last days. I for one want Celtic to learn from their mistakes and I’ll be supporting every Scottish team in Europe. It also make our job of qualifying alot easier. Anyway hail hail !!!
CELTIC THE ONLY TEAM THAT MATTERS HAIL HAIL
dont rubbish they teams thats what the english media do give them every respect
Certainly if we play to our full potential, and bar any calamaties…. then we should fancy our chances against any of the 5 named sides..
Of the 5, my preference would be to avoid the Romanians
i think if we win our next few games then the confidence, match sharpness and maybe most importantly, goal scoring touch will be back and we could take any of these teams, cluj would be the most difficult and the temperatures in israel or cyprus would be hard on the players but im confident we can do it, also i think maribor and celtic fans would get on fine 2gether as they will no doubt have seen their stadium wrecked by ‘govan athletic’ haha
how is it decided who plays at home for first leg (aug 21st/22nd) of playoffs? heading to scotland and praying celtic will be at home for first leg to beat whoever they are drawn with.
Thinks its just whoevers first out that hat who’s at home
None of the teams we can face in the play-off round should be sniffed at. We should not underestimate any of them. Historically we should be able to be every single one of them but in the here and now we have to play both legs like we just played the last two, with guile and patience without losing any urgency. That said I am chuffed with our performance over the two legs and hopefully we can make it through to the group stages. I don’t think that Helsingborgs would be a bad draw but you just know that we’re going to face Cluj… we ALWAYS get the hardest tie!!
Yep HoudiniBhoy ur dead right!!!!!!
Hi there, i am a fan of CFR CLUJ! 😀 we would like to play Celtic in the Champions League Play off ! :). Let the best to Win!
See you in the final much better!
Would you like to play us because we are a big team or because you think you can beat us?
Good luck and hope to see you in the group stages but not at our expense.
both 🙂
must admit, i have a good feeling about our chances when i look at these teams, the only ones i would be wary about are cluj and helsingborgs. hapoel would be my pick i think, hopefully we’ll get them.
Are they the only teams we can get? If so I’d like to avoid the romanians but anyone else I’d be quite happy to take on, great performance last night, so controlled and measured, played like a team who’s been playing in Europe for years!
Hi Happy Hoopsters would like to see us dump maribor as this would just add to the woes of SEVCO lol Want to see us get someone in as cover for Mulgrew and Rogne and also lets get a target man up front. Should we get past the next round we will bank £10m + so we should spend the lot as we will be able to use the players next season too as this would help us win the SPL more comfortable. Also CFC dump SKY and their EPL bias and start your own TV station with SPL coverage. My dad cancelled SKY after 10 years due to CFC only getting 2 games live this season FARCE
Rangers are picking up world class players , do you think Lenny should try and snap up whoever the rangers scout is
We have the tools to take any of these teams apart. Its a bit more prestigeous waiting for champions of there country to come out the hat than the big teams of the ramsdens cup hahaha cyprus or peterhied, let me think hahaha