Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer state what Celtic ‘are more than capable’ of doing in the Champions League

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Away from domestic duty for a bit and back to chatting about Celtic in the Champions League for a bit.

With three games left in the competition, Celtic have put themselves in the driving seat to qualify from the league phase after the Bhoys drew with Club Brugge midweek.

Celtic now sit 20th in the UEFA Champions League just one point from the seeded play-off places and two from the automatic qualification places.

And here, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer share exactly what they think of Brendan Rodgers’ chances of qualification after Celtic earned a point against Club Brugge.

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer believe Celtic can qualify from the Champions League

Lineker told The Rest is Football [35m], “Before we call it a day, a line certainly on Celtic, they came back, they’re above Real Madrid.

“I bet you never thought we’d say that after five games. 20th. I think there’ll be a lot of big clubs in that chunk between nine and 24.

“But Celtic could be one of those. I think they’ve got a chance. I think it’s again, that they would have hoped to win home to Brugge. But did you see the own goal, Celtic? Oh, my goodness, Carter-Vickers.

“That is one of those where he just rolled it back, ‘Oh, where’s the keeper gone? Oh, dear’. We talked about playing out from the back, didn’t we? But that was playing back from the back.

Shearer: “Yeah, he wouldn’t want to see that again. It was a horrible mistake. But they did well coming back and getting a point out of it.

“And this is where this format, I think, will help Celtic because I think they are more than capable of getting in that gap and having that playoff.

“And I think it will be tough for anyone to go to Celtic with that atmosphere.”

Gary Lineker predicts Celtic’s ‘winnable’ games in their last three Champions League matches

Lineker: “The next game is the Dinamo Zagreb away. Tough, but winnable. They’ve got Young Boys, the seventh game, which is certainly winnable, and then finish at Villa.

“We’ve said it a few times now, but this is a much, much better format than the group stays previously in the Champions League.

“Every game matters. Every single game, and I think that will be the case right to the end.”

Celtic, barring the Borussia Dortmund result, have performed admirably in the Champions League with wins against Slovan Bratislava and RB Leipzig.

Draws against Atalanta and Club Brugge have bolstered those victories and, as Lineker states, the matches against Young Boys and Dinamo Zagreb are very winnable.

If Celtic takes six points from those two games and gets something at Villa Park, it’s not just the seeded play-off places that will be in the sights of Rodgers, the Hoops could, unbelievably, earn automatic qualification into the last 16.