If Celtic get past Czech side FK Jablonec in the Europa League qualifying round, which is being played over the next week, they will play Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the play-off round. Alkmaar are the seeded side and go straight into the Europa League play-off round after their third place finish in the Eredivisie last season.
However if Celtic fail to get past Jablonec then we will drop into the playoff round of the new Conference League, where we will play the winners of the Tobol Kostanay (Kazakhstan) v MSK Zilina (Slovakia) tie.
Photo: Gonzales Photo/Lasse Lagoni
Celtic have already dropped out of the Champions League losing 3-2 on aggregate to FC Midtjylland. The Danish side are unlikely to be as strong as AZ Alkmaar but there’s not much point worrying too much about them until we know we’ll be able to compete against the Czech side as Ange Postecoglou takes his side to FK Jablonec’s Stadion Strelnice on Thursday evening in the early kick-off (4.45pm).
The return game is on Thursday 12 August at Celtic Park (kick-off 7.45pm) where the Celtic season ticket holders with a 0/4 record in the club ballots are possibly going to get a chance to attend a game. That though is probably going to happen because the authorities are going to allow the numbers to increase rather than anything that the ticket office will do. Pretty sure they’d find a way to exclude the supporters that they usually do.
Still waiting on them to reply from last week incidentally.
