Celtic will be spared a first round Champions League qualifier against Piast Gilwice of Poland.
Piast appeared to be the strongest of the non-seeded sides in the first round draw with memories of Legia Warsaw still fresh among Celtic supporters.
To whatever criteria, possibly to avoid a Celtic and Linfield reunion, UEFA have decided to split the draw into different sections with the hoops possible opponents coming from Sarajevo (Bosnia), Sutjeska (Montenegro), Partizani (Albania), Saburtalo (Georgia) or Valetta (Malta).
1. UEFA have published the groups for tomorrows CL draw. Celtic will play one of the following in QR1.
Valletta (Malta)
FK Sarajevo (Bosnia)
Sutjeska (Montenegro)
Partizani (Albania)
Saburtalo Tbilisi (Georgia)Here’s a quick summary of each, blagged from last nights tweets.
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) June 17, 2019
Sarajevo are the side ranked highest in the co-efficient table but compared to Piast it shouldn’t be asking too much of Neil Lennon’s side to get through the matches on July 9/10 and 16/17.
The draw for the second round will also take place tomorrow and will assume that the seeded side progresses through the first round.
If successful Celtic will be seeded through each of the four qualifying rounds, should they reach the group phase they will be in pot 3 which in theory means that there will be one weaker side in their group.
