Six possible Europa League opponents confirmed

Celtic’s possible opponents for the lunchtime Europa League draw have been confirmed.

Neil Lennon’s side will face either CD National of Portugal, Sion of Switzerland, Litex Lovech of Bulgaria, SV Ried of Austria, FK Rabotnicki of Macedonia or Slask Wrocklaw of Poland.

On paper that appears a fairly kind draw with none of those clubs having played in the Champions League in recent seasons although National of Portugal will bring back memories of Braga who knocked Celtic out of last season’s Champions League qualifiers.

National are based on the popular holiday island of Madeira and finished in sixth place in the league last season with HALF the points of champions Porto.

Sion would be the easiest draw in terms of travel and finished fourth in last season’s championship, 19 points behind winners Basle. The new Swiss season is three games old with Sion sitting in third place with six points.

Slask Wrocklaw knocked Dundee United out in the second qualifying round then beat Lokomotiv Sofia on penalties after two goal-less matches. After their trip to Tannadice Strathclyde Police will be on alert if the Poles are drawn against Celtic.

Litex Lovech were beaten home and away in their Champions League qualifier by Wisla Krakow. Last season Litex won the title ahead of the three Sofia teams of Levski, CSKA and Lokomotiv losing just one in 30 matches.

SV Ried finished second in the Austrian League and knocked out Brondby in the third qualifying round for the Europa League, winning the home leg 4-2 before losing 2-0 in Denmark.

Rabotnicki reached the final qualifying round by beating Anorthosis of Cyprus, winning 2-0 away from home before losing last night’s return leg 2-1.

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