Celtic’s route to the Champions League group phase has been slightly eased by the elimination of APOEL.
The Cypriot champions beat Sudova from Lithuania 1-0 at home last night but crash out on a 3-2 aggregate and into the Europa League qualifiers.
APOEL were a potential play-off opponent for Celtic but their elimination sees Qarabag of Azerbaijan promoted into the unseeded section of the play-off round if results go with club ranking.
APOEL become the first seeded team knocked out this years CL qualifying, losing 3-2 on aggregate to Suduva.
APOEL were the highest ranked team we could have faced in the playoff round had all seeds progressed. So there will be a bit of seed rejigging for the Q3/PO rounds.
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) July 17, 2018
In season 2011/12 APOEL reached the last eight of the Champions League.
With four play-off rounds over eight midweeks there are likely to be more surprises as teams are caught out especially when they play against clubs whose domestic campaign is already underway.
Celtic look certainties to progress into the second qualifying round after winning their first leg tie against Alashkert 3-0 in Armenia.
In the second round the hoops will face Rosenborg or Valur with the Icelandic side taking a 1-0 lead into the second leg in Norway which kicks off an hour tonight’s Celtic match.
