The Champions League draw is fast approaching and Celtic fans are eagerly awaiting which of Europe’s elite Celtic will face this season.
Expectations have been tempered by supporters following an underwhelming few weeks of domestic matches as well as a lack of activity in the transfer market to excite fans, particularly the lack of a European calibre signing.
Fans love to debate between glamour ties and ‘easy’ ties, with this writer much preferring Celtic get the easiest passage through the group stages as possible. Everyone has an opinion on Celtic’s form in Europe as of late, with many fans calling Celtic naive for playing an attacking style of football and leaving our defence wide open to be ripped apart by Europe’s best attackers.
Celtic’s underwhelming recent years of Champions League football may also be attributed to luck, as the draw hasn’t been kind to the Hoops over the last decade.
Tough Draws
Celtic have finished bottom of their Champions League group in three out of the last four group stage campaigns and that can be attributed to the difficult hand that Celtic have been dealt.
Celtic finished rock bottom of the group last season and that may be perhaps down to the draw coming too soon for Ange’s side, as Shakhtar Donetsk seemed like a winnable game for Celtic home and away if not for the exploits of Ukrainian star Mykhailo Mudryk. Real Madrid and RB Leipzig were two tough teams to face and would’ve always been a very hard proposition for Celtic to overcome.
In the 2016/17 campaign, where Brendan Rodgers guided his Celtic side to their first Champions League group stage in four years, Celtic were drawn with Barcelona and Manchester City as well as Borussia Monchengladbach. Much like the 2022/23 season, this group may have come too soon for Celtic with many fans seeing the games against Monchengladbach in particular as missed opportunities.
Finally, back in 2013/14, Celtic finished bottom of a group consisting of Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax, a draw which sucked all excitement of the campaign ahead out of Celtic fans with passage from this group or even securing European football after Christmas both seeming like near-impossible tasks.
Celtic’s inconsistency in qualifying for the Champions League has led to us being overtaken by clubs that, in the past, fans would have expected us to compete with. This has resulted in Celtic constantly struggling to compete with a lot of the previously perceived lesser sides in the competition, which may make any draw we receive look tough in hindsight.
2012/13 Season
The last time Celtic qualified for the Champions League round of 16 was under Neil Lennon in the 2012/13 season.
The outlier from Celtic’s draw in this season compared to those previously mentioned was that the draw looked far more favourable on paper. Barcelona were one of the most dominant teams in the world of football back in this period of time, however, Benfica and Spartak Moscow both provided opportunities for Celtic to compete, home and away, allowing for the Hoops to pass through to face Juventus in the following round.
Given this, does luck play much more of a factor in Celtic’s European performances than we have previously considered?
JAMES MCKENZIE
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