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Who could be Celtic’s next Champions League opponents?

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champions leagueCeltic will find out their next Champions League opponents when the third round draw is made tomorrow morning.

A trip to Dublin could be on the cards for Ronny Deila with St Pat’s pulling off a highly credible 1-1 draw away to Legia Warsaw last night with the Irish champions only denied victory by a stoppage time equaliser.

With the next round taking place on July 29/30 and August 5/6 the draw will take place tomorrow to allow clubs and supporters to prepare travel arrangements.

Having won 1-0 away to KR Reykjavik on Tuesday night the return leg at Murrayfield should be a formality allowing Deila to turn his thoughts towards the tie that stands between Celtic and the play-off stage.

Danish champions Aalborg, possibly the worst side that Celtic have played in the Champions League, are the only definite team in the unseeded side of the draw which will produce ten ties.

Among the possible opponents are the champions of Ireland, Wales and north east Ireland who are all in with a fighting chance in next week’s return legs.

Cliftonville were well deserving of their 0-0 home draw against Hungarian side Debrecen while the hoops of Welsh champions The New Saints will entertain Slovan Bratislava looking to overturn a 1-0 defeat from the first leg.

Celtic’s other possible opponents are HSK Zrijinski (Bosnia) or Maribor (first leg 0-0), Partizan Belgrade or HB Torshavn (Faroes) (first leg 3-0), Dinamo Tiblisi or FK Aktobe (Kazakstan) (first leg 0-1), Malmo or FK Ventspils (Latvia) (first leg 0-0),  Valeta (Malta) or Quarabag (Azebaijan) (first leg 0-1) and finally FK Rabotnicki (Macedonia) or HJK Helsink (first leg 0-0).

Over the last two seasons the third qualifying round has been on a regional basis with Celtic paired with HJK Helsinki and Elfsborg but a regional draw may not be possible this season due to the lack of qualifiers from western and northern Europe.

HÅ K Zrinjski

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