More teams are joining Celtic in next year’s UEFA Champions League group stage as the domestic season winds down.
Celtic secured their place back in European football’s premier club competition with victory over Hearts ten days ago.
It’s been another routine title win for the Hoops with a ten point gap currently enjoyed over rivals Rangers.
Some of Europe’s other top leagues are a bit tighter with full Champions League qualifiers still to be ironed out.
We do, however, already know 11 of the 32 group stage teams for next season.
The currently qualified teams are: Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Napoli, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Benfica, Feyenoord, Celtic, Red Star Belgrade.
It’s a formidable line-up that will be added to in the coming weeks.
In England, it looks like two from Newcastle United, Manchester United and Liverpool will join the pack.
In Spain, it is likely to be Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad, while Juventus and current finalists Inter Milan look good in Italy.
Germany is two from RB Leipzig, Union Berlin and Freiburg while France will see PSG and either Lens or Marseille qualify automatically.
Porto and Red Bull Salzburg are two others we fully expect to see join proceedings.
We’ll also have summer qualifiers for the less fortunate with the group stage draw taking place on August 31.
Celtic are likely to be pot four but a pot three spot isn’t completely out of the question.
We’ll keep an eye on things and make sure you’re up to date over the next few weeks.
In other news, an Inverness plan to stop Celtic fans buying their tickets may have backfired with their own supporters
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
