Explained: Celtic’s pot three chances and who you should be supporting in Champions League qualifying

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The second round of Champions League qualifying got underway on Tuesday evening and there is some interest for Celtic.

Yes, we’ve had our spot booked in the group stage alongside the rest of European football’s big dogs for months. But we can still take some interest in qualifying.

That’s because we’re still to find out what pot Celtic will be in for the big Champions League draw on August 31.

We know that it will be either pot three or four, and the latter is the more likely scenario. But we shouldn’t lose all hope for a nice little bonus.

For Celtic to be a pot three team we need to have eight sides with a lower UEFA coefficient join us in the draw. Of the 26 qualified sides so far, only three — Newcastle United, Union Berlin and Lens — are below us.

That means that we need at least five of the six teams coming through qualifying to have a lower coefficient than our 31.000. (UEFA)

This would apply to the likes of Antwerp, Sparta Prague, AEK Athens, Molde and Qarabag in the ‘Champions’ side of the draw, as well as Sturm Graz, Genk and Panathinaikos in the ‘League’ path.

If five or more of those sides make it through to the group stage then we’ll be all set for pot three.

But it would involve no more than one of Rangers, Braga, PSV Eindhoven, Marseille, Dinamo Zagreb, Galatasaray, Copenhagen or Young Boys making it through. Those are the teams you should be hoping to exit the competition before the group stage.

So if you’re asking for a simple percentage chance of Celtic being in pot three I’d put it around the 20% mark. Not impossible but not too likely either.

Even if we don’t manage to make the jump, the more shocks in qualifying the better for us, as UEFA pay out part of their money based on a 10-year coefficient ranking.

While having automatic qualification sorted is a beautiful thing, it really is time that we start picking up some big results in Europe, and boost our coefficient for future years. Even if the group stage is in its final season.

In other news, Celtic have carried out some positive work in the transfer window in recent weeks