After nine seasons in the Champions route Celtic face a very different path to reach next season’s Champions League group stage.
Back in 2012 Celtic defeated HJK Helsinki and Helsingborgs to reach the group phase but in recent years the route was extended to four qualifiers resulting in eight consecutive midweek matches.
Peter Lawwell’s failure to prepare the squad has proved costly in recent seasons with the champions of Greece, Romania and Hungary ending Celtic’s hopes before the Play Off stage.
The non-Champions route contains clubs from better leagues than those nations with Celtic entering the qualifiers on July 19/20 and 26/27 at the Third Round stage.
Discussing Celtic’s route, The Sun reports:
They will be seeded in the second and third qualifying rounds which is massive. They are set to face the Austrian runners-up – either Rapid Vienna or Sturm Graz – the Danish runners-up, likely to be Midtjylland, or Galatasaray from Turkey.
If they progress, they will avoid Shakhtar Donetsk, the third placed French side – either Monaco or Lyon, and Portuguese giants Benfica. But the Hoops could be paired with Genk, PSV Eindhoven or Spartak Moscow in their bid to reach the play-off round.
With less than two months to go until the first match of next season Celtic remain without a manager, whoever takes over from Neil Lennon faces a major turnover of players.
Six players have been named in the Scotland squad for the European Championships, even if they get knocked out at the group stage they will still be involved in matches through until June 22.
