Champions league or Europa, £40m or less than half of that sum. A place at the top table or life in the slow lane. That’s what Celtic is playing for in Almaty tomorrow evening against Kairat, the Champions of Kazakhstan…
Celtic 0-0 Kairat Almaty. Celtic’s Champions League hopes hang very much in the balance after they were held to a goalless draw in Glasgow by Kazakh side Kairat. Photo Kenny Ramsay IMAGO / News Licensing
The Celtic squad are in Kazakhstan to take on Kairat Almaty in a shootout for the right to earn a place amongst European football’s elite in the league phase of the new look Champions League. I reckon that it’s safe to say that plenty of Celtic supporters are feeling far from optimistic ahead of tomorrow’s winner takes all tie with a £40m prize on offer to the winner.
Pessimism is perhaps understandable
That pessimism is perhaps understandable due to Celtic’s lacklustre display last Wednesday night in the goalless draw that has given Kairat a surge of self-belief that they can finish the job in their own stadium. However Celtic are still very much in contention to overcome the Kazakh champions and earn our place in the cash laden group stages.
Brendan Rodgers after the Premier League match between Celtic and Livingston at Celtic Park on August 23, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“We’re there to win the game. The objective is to qualify”
“We are really positive. I think we go and we make sure our preparation’s right over the next 48 hours,” Brendan Rodgers said to Celtic TV on Saturday evening after the 3-0 win over Livingston in the SPL at Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership.
“We’ll go out there and take all the preparation that we need to do on the plane and everything else. Like I said, we’re there to win the game. The objective is to qualify.
“We’re still well in the game and we’re still well capable of going out there and winning. So that’s the plan.”
The Celtic Board will be held responsible if Celtic don’t win tomorrow
The Champions League is certainly where Celtic supporters aspire to be. So too does the manager and the players. The Celtic Board like the revenue but seem strangely reluctant tp plan for success in these qualifiers and have left the tie on a knife-edge.
It’s the elite club competition in world football, watched around the world and it’s where the best sides play. The financial gains are massive, it means so much to the club, the players and the supporters. On and off the park, it’s where we need to be so it’s hard to get your head around the lack of summer transfer activity just to replace key players who have been sold (Kyogo and Nicolas Kuhn) or out injured (Jota, with a long term ACL injury which will see him miss much of this season).
Jota of Celtic celebrates with teammate Kyogo Furuhashi. (Photo by Laszlo Szirtesi/Getty Images)
Celtic certainly hasn’t acted like a club with Champions League aspirations
Maybe with this lack of ambition at Boardroom level Celtic might actually be better – and probably more competitive in the Europa League? You would be lying to yourself however if you hadn’t harboured thoughts about competing in Europe’s secondary competition the Europa League after last week’s result against Kairat.
In contrast to the Champions League, it massively pales in comparison. The gap between the two competitions has never been greater. But in a way it’s a level that we would perhaps have no problem competing in, and would have a realistic chance of reaching the latter stages. Remember several teams were cast adrift in the Champions League and ended up with very few or even no points at all.
Celtic did well last time around in the Champions League but the side that takes to field tomorrow evening will be much weakener that the one that played so well in last season’s Champions League.
Nicolas Kuhn scores during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Knockout Play-off second leg match between FC Bayern München and Celtic FC at Allianz Arena on February 18, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
To me Celtic doing well in the Europa League is not wishful thinking, as one look at the calibre of teams at the quarterfinal stage last season tells you that we would have a more than realistic chance of doing so, whilst in the champions league our sole aim would be to qualify for the last 16, with the latter stages essentially well out of our reach.
To enter the Europa league however would mean exiting the play offs, and that is something we are all keen to avoid. No true Celtic supporter ever wants to see the side lose a gain. NEVER. EVER!
But no-one would blame you if you ever contemplated playing in a lesser, but more chance of advancing arena like the Europa League.
We’ll find out tomorrow night which European competition Celtic will play in this season and ff it’s the Europa League then the Celtic Board will have no-one to blame but themselves.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
The evidence doesn’t stack up, we’ve done as poorly in the europa as the champions league, Bodo Glimt etc. The Huns have done better than us in the secondary competition, infact this article would be a better fit for them, and I doubt we have a squad equipped for either at this moment in time. Or are Kairat better than your typical Europa league team?, they’re certainly not at champions league level, and performed more like stunt men/actors than footballers.
There was a time when I thought we couldn’t do without CL qualification and the riches on offer, but as our board would give Scrooge a run for his hoarded money, there’s no point in qualifying to get a regular humping/embarrassed by the monied clubs from the top 5 leagues.
So fck the riches on offer from UEFA.