The four Champions League playoff sides who could bring Celtic an on-pitch reward

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The UEFA Champions League has reached the playoff round, with Celtic up soon.

As you will surely be aware, the Hoops have bypassed Champions League qualifying for a second successive year. We are straight in to the group stage with the draw for that a week on Friday.

A seat at the top table of European club football is worth a whole lot of money. As we covered last night on the site, there are a couple of sides who could earn us even more by making it to the group stage.

But in a purely football respect, there are a set of further on-field results that could also benefit the team.

Given our below-par recent European record, we are widely expected to be one of the weaker sides in the competition proper, in terms of UEFA‘s coefficient at least.

Of the teams currently qualified, only Newcastle United, Union Berlin and Lens have a lower coefficient. To find a place in pot three, we need five other teams with a lower ranking to make it through in the playoff round. That is still a remote possibility.

Rangers vs PSV Eindhoven is the only tie where a side with a higher coefficient than us is guaranteed to win. We’ll be further down the pecking order than whoever progresses there.

Antwerp vs AEK Athens is equally irrelevant to us. Whoever wins that tie will be lower down than Celtic.

In the other ties, there is an opportunity for an ‘underdog’ to progress. If all four do, we’ll be a pot three side. Here are the ties, with the teams we should be supporting highlighted in bold.

Maccabi Haifa (Israel) vs Young Boys (Switzerland)

Rakow (Poland) vs Copenhagen (Denmark)

Molde (Norway) vs Galatasaray (Turkey)

Braga (Portugal) vs Panathinaikos (Greece)

As you may expect, all four sides in bold can probably be considered as outsiders in their respective ties. However, no clash seems like a shoe-in and three of them have home legs up first.

So it’s an outside chance of a pot three spot, let’s be fair. But unlikely things can and will happen. Let’s see how the fixtures go this midweek and next.

In other news, Stephen Welsh didn’t forget his Celtic upbringing with class May visit to Ibrox