Celtic go into a very complex Europa League draw at 1pm today as the Champions League drop outs attempt to find a group place in UEFA’s secondary competition.
The process was complex enough but with the match between Riga and Tre Fiori abandoned and rescheduled for a 10am Friday morning kick-off the situation failed to clear up last week.
Eight teams will go into the group stage draw with five clubs seeded for today’s Play-Off draw. That means that there will be three ties between non-seeded teams which includes Celtic.
With most leagues closed down for five or more months and the qualifying rounds played over one match the seeded teams have taken a hit with Celtic among the casualties.
First up for Neil Lennon’s side is a trip to Latvia or San Marino next Thursday, the second part will be known at lunchtime with Young Boys of Switzerland probably the toughest looking option.
The draw is littered with familiar possibilities from Cluj to Qarabag to be faced in a one off tie.
Normally a home tie would offer a big advantage but with the sight and sound of Cluj, Copenhagen and Ferencvaros celebrating at Celtic Park still fresh being drawn away may not be such a disadvantage.
1. The EL Playoff draw is at 1pm tomorrow. Seeded and unseeded teams attached.
It’s a strange draw. There will be 5 seeded teams and 11 unseeded ‘ties’.
The 5 seeds will be paired with an unseeded ‘tie’ first. The remaining 6 unseeded teams will be drawn against one other. pic.twitter.com/36ke35aE5Q
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) September 17, 2020
2. This means Celtic could play any other team in the draw, seeded or unseeded.
In practice, the list of teams we could face will be limited as UEFA will likely split the teams into 2 groups of
– 3 seeds, 5 non seeds
– 2 seeds, 6 non seedsIt might even be smaller groups.
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) September 17, 2020
3. But for now, every other team listed is a potential playoff opponent – other than Riga and Tre Fiori.
There are some difficult teams in there. But also some you would be glad to get.
The playoff would be a one-off tie with no fans.
Of course we need to win QR3 first.
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) September 17, 2020
Riga – Tre Fiori will go ahead at 10am local time tomorrow. So we’ll know who we play in QR3 before the Playoff draw is made at 1pm, UK time.
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) September 17, 2020