Celtic Europa League draw: Full list of potential opponents confirmed
Martin O’Neill’s side enter the competition after their disastrous Champions League play-off elimination against LASK, having remarkably surrendered a 4-0 aggregate advantage with just 70 minutes of the tie remaining.
The Hoops have been placed in Pot 2 for the draw, which takes place in Monaco at 12pm on Friday.
However, Celtic’s seeding offers little protection under UEFA’s current format. They will be paired with two teams from each of the four pots, including two fellow Pot 2 clubs, producing eight fixtures in total.
Four will be staged at Celtic Park and four away from home.
Pot 1 contains some formidable possibilities, including Juventus, AC Milan, Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica and Marseille, alongside Lyon, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiacos and Real Sociedad.
Celtic’s fellow Pot 2 sides are Union Saint-Gilloise, Ferencvaros, Viktoria Plzen, Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Sparta Prague, Rennes and Anderlecht.
Pot 3 consists of Sturm Graz, Lech Poznan, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Celje, Jagiellonia, Celta Vigo and Omonia.
Hoffenheim, Besiktas, Torreense, Hapoel Be’er Sheva, NEC, Levski Sofia, Ararat-Armenia, Lillestrom and OFI make up Pot 4.
Celtic will need to finish inside the top 24 of the 36-team standings to continue their European campaign beyond January. A top-eight finish would bypass the knockout play-off round and secure direct passage into the last 16.
The opening round of fixtures will be played on September 16 and 17, with the league phase running through until January 28.
O’Neill’s side will be looking to improve on last season’s Europa League campaign, when Celtic collected 11 points and finished 21st before suffering a 4-2 aggregate defeat to Stuttgart in the knockout play-offs.
There is also a considerable financial difference between the competitions. Celtic earned around £14million from last season’s Europa League campaign, compared with approximately £40.2m from their participation in the Champions League a year earlier.
