Which teams could Celtic face in next season’s Champions League final qualifiers?
Britain Football Soccer - Manchester City v Celtic - UEFA Champions League Group Stage - Group C - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England - 6/12/16 Celtic team group Reuters / Phil Noble Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
With Celtic on course for an eighth successive title the timetable to the Champions League is starting to take shape.
UEFA still offer four places from the Champions Route which begins on July 9/10 and runs through every midweek until the prizes are decided at the end of August.
With more group stage places going to clubs from the richer leagues the quality of opponents from the mid ranking countries is rising with the third qualifying round now looking of similar quality to the Play Off round.
23. Things start to look far tougher in QR3, as the Dutch & Greek champion join the tournament.
This is almost like an old-school playoff round, with some tough opponents that early in the season. The Greek champion could be lurking unseeded in QR3 again. pic.twitter.com/WDxSjtBvaT
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) March 20, 2019
24. And finally, here’s a speculative punt at the playoff round, assuming all the seeds make it this far. Not sure there’s much difference between this and QR3.
Note that we have the same points as Copenhagen, but are above them. This is because we scored better this season. pic.twitter.com/lnDfHcZXvl
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) March 20, 2019
At the start of this season Celtic discovered a clear gulf in class between Rosenborg and AEK Athens with the Greeks cashing in on uncertainty behind the scenes under Brendan Rodgers.
The third round qualifiers could throw up opponents from Bulgaria, Greece or Serbia which will certainly require Celtic to be at their strongest with substantial rebuilding expected in the summer.
With no World Cup Finals this summer there are less distractions but European Championship ties take place on June 10/11/12 leaving just four weeks before the first qualifiers of the 2019/20 Champions League campaign.