On-loan Celtic man achieves UEFA Europa League qualification

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Celtic loanee Conor Hazard will be playing UEFA Europa League group stage football this season after achieving qualification with HJK Helsinki.

The 24-year-old is currently spending the year out on loan after joining the Finnish side back in the January winter window.

So far this season, the Northern Irishman has picked up plenty of game time, making 25 appearances and keeping 11 clean sheets in those games.

Most of Hazard’s appearances have come in league action, with the current Finnish Champions sitting 3rd place in the Veikkausliiga, level on points with the two sides sitting above them.

However, he has also been involved in European qualifiers starting off in the 1st round of Champions League qualifying. But, his side were unfortunately knocked by the hands of Viktoria Plzen, who reached the group stages of the competition.

Helsinki dropped into the next stages of qualifying for the Europa League groups, joining at the 3rd round to face Maribor.

Having comfortably seen off the Slovenian side, all that was left between a place in the Europa League for the Finnish Champions was Danish club Silkeborg.

Yesterday evening, Hazard and his teammates secured their position in Europe’s second biggest club tournament, seeing off Silkeborg 2-1 on aggregate.

The Celtic loanee can now look forward to potentially playing against sides such as Manchester United, Arsenal or Monaco, with the draw for the competition set to take place later today.

Of course, this won’t be Hazard’s first outing in the Europa League after making a competitive European appearance for the Hoops.

The goalkeeper was between the sticks for Celtic’s 3-2 win over Lille at Celtic Park under Neil Lennon during the 2020/21 campaign.

Going out on loan provided Hazard with the opportunity to play regular football, and now he will be doing so against some of the top club sides from across Europe.

With HJK Helsinki’s league season due to finish in a month’s time, it should be an even bigger test for the Northern Ireland internationalist to stay up to speed for huge tests against some fantastic players.

In other news, Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti reacts to Celtic draw.