Celtic go into their final Europa League tie of the season with progress in their own hands.
A win against Utrecht will take the hoops onto 11 points and a guaranteed place in the Round of 16 Play Offs.
That would involve a two legged match against a team that finishes in positions 9-16 of the competition.
The top eight teams are guaranteed their place in the Last 16 draw.
Clearly a win is the objective against the Dutch side but there are other options out there. Ideally, they would be avoided. Strangely Celtic’s results away from home have been better than those at Celtic Park.
A draw tonight was always going to be important for momentum into Sunday and points on the board in the Europa but next Thursday is quite simply a must win game with how close the teams below us are
One slip up and it could be lights out on another European campaign pic.twitter.com/Cd4jtaJsYw
— Kieran (@Kieran_Sellick) January 22, 2026
A draw or a defeat would result in some frantic scanning of results elsewhere.
Having a home tie against a team that has already been eliminated is the ideal scenario but a year ago YB Berne showed that no-one can be written off.
The Swiss side did have a massive win bonus to play for, the rewards in the Europa League are much lesser.
Utrecht come to Glasgow with one point from seven matches. Their goal difference is 3-11 which suggests that they haven’t been hammered.
Yesterday they lost 2-0 at home to Genk with their only point coming on Matchday 4 with a 1-1 draw at home to Porto.
Celtic will be without Reo Hatate for the Utrecht match as squad options are reduced.
All of next week’s matches kick off at 8pm with Celtic fans hoping for a stress free night. But memories of Braga and Roma remain very fresh.
And the Board’s incompetence has created this dilemma.
We all want the team to make progress in Europe, so we should be hoping for a win /
qualification to the next round in the EL, and get as far as we can.
…but we are still mince in the league and there is a real risk of not retaining the title?
Extra Euro games for a thin squad could result in more injures and/or
post-Euro away game slump[s] in the following SPL games?
But, the point is, there shouldn’t be a ‘preference’ for the fans – or even for MON.
The club has the resources to create a squad which can deal with the demands of both
Europe and SPL ties.
…and that comes right back to the Board’s continuing, failing ‘transfers business model’.
Just win and that’s it.
Has no one noticed that the Huns beating ludgorets kept us in the qualification spot? Co efficient cock wombles helping us out again.
Not often that these Orange Bastards do Celtic a favour Andrew !
PS – Quite a nice European strip For Celtic is that one in the pic above !
I watched the Utrecht v Genk game and they are rank rotten. I’ll be really surprised if we dont win with goals to spare