After five rounds of Champions League fixtures Celtic are sitting on the same number of points as Manchester City, Juventus and PSV Eindhoven.
A year ago the hoops had just lost 2-0 away to Lazio and faced a dead rubber at home to Feyenoord to complete their campaign, assured of bottom spot and no post Christmas European football.
There is a sense of anti-climax following the 1-1 draw with Club Brugge but that only reinforces the progress made this season which has gone a huge way to restoring the reputation of Celtic in Europe, the Belgian side are exactly the type of club that Celtic should be aspiring to be.
On that note with Diamo Zagreb and YB Berne both below the hoops in the 32 team table there are reasonable grounds to hope that full points can be gathered from the next two fixtures which would send Celtic to conclude their campaign at Aston Villa with a chance of reaching the top eight and an automatic place in the Round of 16.
Liverpool are the first team to confirm their place in the round of 16 or knockout phase play-offs ?#UCL pic.twitter.com/ebUtmFxFeW
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) November 27, 2024
Three or four points from those matches is the fall-back position for those fixtures which would ensure a Play Off place with a final position between 9 and 16 giving home advantage in the second leg of an old school knockout tie.
The new look to the competition will take some getting used to, generally going into Matchday 6 most of the issues are cut and dried but this season virtually anything is still possible, most teams are still in the mix with only Liverpool having full points with three teams yet to get off the mark, most surprisingly that includes RB Leipzig
YB Berne are rock bottom with no points and a goal difference of -15, next up for the Swiss champions is a trip to Stuttgart with Celtic concluding their home matches in the group phase on January 22 by which point the picture will be far clearer.
