UEFA will split the third qualifying round draw for the Champions League into two regions that could see Celtic drawn against Quarabag of Azebaijan.
The lack of competing teams from western Europe has forced UEFA into adding the winners of the Valetta (Malta) v Quarabag match into that half of the draw.
The other clubs in the ‘western’ half of the draw include Aalborg of Denmark and the winners of the ties involving the champions of Ireland, Wales and north east Ireland.
Cliftonville, The New Saints and St Pat’s are all still in contention going into next week’s second leg ties against their seeded opponents from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.
The draw starts at 11am in Nyon with Celtic strong favourites to progress after winning 1-0 away to KR Reykjavik of Iceland.
This weeks second round first leg matches provided few clear cut results with all of the ties in Celtic’s section in the balance. Valetta drew 0-0 at home to Quarabag as did Cliftonville and Debrecen (Hungary). St Pat’s were only denied a 1-0 win away to Legia Warsaw due to a last minute equaliser while The New Saints went down 1-0 away to Slovan Bratislava.
The draw for the Champions League will be followed by the third qualifying round draw for the Europa League with all three Scottish clubs drawing in the second round first leg last night.
St Johnstone achieved the best result of the night with a 1-1 draw away to Luzern of Switzerland, Aberdeen drew 0-0 at home to Groningen while Motherwell were 2-0 up after 19 minutes at home to Stjarnan of Iceland but had to settle for a draw.
