Celtic have the advantage this season of not having to play any Champions League qualifiers as they are straight into pot four having won the Scottish Premiership last season.
The Celtic support haven’t heard the old famous Champions League theme tune ringing round Celtic Park since December 2017 on a disappointing night which saw Brendan Rodgers side be beaten by RSC Anderlecht.
European football last season under Ange Postecoglou at the beginning could almost have been scripted with the team being badly unprepared to enter the tournament and were dumped out by FC Midtjylland.
Had the Hoops took on the Danish side a few months later, it could have been a different story but the team at the time where nowhere near ready with additions badly needed.
Not too far on from that point, there is a case to say that Ange Postecoglou overachieved in securing Europa League football for the club due to the place that the team found itself in at that point against a settled AZ Alkmaar.
The group stage draw wasn’t kind to Celtic with Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis coming out the pot who are two top teams.
Performances in the group were mixed with highlight being the home and away fixtures against Ferencvaros who Celtic had some history with from the previous season. Postecoglou’s side gave a good account of themselves against the two other teams but ultimately didn’t do enough to reach the latter stages of the tournament.
Celtic then proceeded to be drawn against Norwegian champions FK Bodø/Glimt who humbled the Hoops both home and away to end the European story for another season.
Looking towards European football this season, fans will rightfully expect the team to compete with Europe’s elite clubs whoever Celtic are drawn against.
Having not been in the competition for nearly five years the gap at the top will have grown but Celtic must have their eyes firmly poised on trying to get out the group and into the Europa League.
This is a competition which other sides have did well in and would once again give the club the opportunity to get the awful record of not winning a European tie after Christmas since 2004 off their back.
The team need to be set up in defensive counter attacking system, imo, to be able to compete in Europe; it serves every other club well who are in a similar position to us as we seen with Bodo, even the top teams like Real Madrid use this type of system, but we seem to think we can high press, and then act surprised when we inevitably get caught short at the back and punished on the counter…been the same story in Europe for years!