Celtic will find out their first Champions League qualification opponents on June 18th. The Hoops are seeded for the first round draw and could theoretically face any of sixteen unseeded sides. UEFA could regionalise the draw making a local tie more likely but they haven’t always done so.
Over the next three weeks we’re going to take an in-depth look at all of our potential opponents, starting with FK Suduva.
A historical battle
The name of the Lithuanian champions is likely to be familiar with Celtic fans for two reasons. The majority of supporters will remember our clash against them in the Europa League last year. A lacklustre performance in the first leg saw us draw 1-1 but we soon got our act together in the return leg, winning 3-0.
Slightly older Hoops fans will remember that the Lithuanians were actually the first team we beat on the road to Seville. Celtic thumped Suduva 8-1 at Celtic Park and then finished the job off with a 2-0 victory away from home.
Recent history
‘The Sudovians’ are well on the way to a third successive A Lyga championship. They’ve won the Lithuanian top-flight in each of the past two years and are currently sitting top of this year’s tournament after 12 matches. They’ve won 10 of their 12 matches including the last seven in a row.
They were knocked out of the Champions League at the second qualifying round last year but took a pretty impressive scalp in the opening round – beating former quarter-finalists APOEL Nicosia. They were then thumped 5-0 by Red Star Belgrade who made it to the group stage of the tournament.
The previous year they made it through three rounds of Europa League qualifiers. They beat Shakhtyor Soligorsk, Liepaja and Sion before being knocked out by Ludogorets.
They aren’t exactly daunting opposition given how easily we dispatched them last season but they wouldn’t be ideal opening opponents.
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