Pundit names reason why Celtic should 'make a fist of' Europa League this season amid recent rule change
Hoops dropped down from the Champions League last month following their 5-4 aggregate to LASK Linz
Celtic should make a ‘good fist’ of the Europe League this year due to the fact teams from the Champions League no longer drop down, according to pundit Michael Stewart.
The Hoops missed out on Champions League qualification last month in their 5-4 play-off defeat to Austrian champions LASK Linz. In turn, they’ve had to settle for the second rate European tournament for the second year running. Last year they finished 21st in the league phase as they scraped into the knockout stages, but were defeated by German giants VFB Stuttgart in the next round.
Introduced in 2024, the new format of the competition means that teams from the Champions League no longer drop into the competition after the group stage, therefore the winner of competition can only be one of the 36 teams that’s qualified. Despite the likes of European giants Benfica, Juventus, AC Milan and Marseille competing, former Hearts captain Stewart believes Celtic should be aiming higher this time around.
Celtic should ‘make a fist’ of Europe - Stewart
Speaking on the Premier Sports Social Club podcast after Celtic’s 2-1 Premiership win over St Mirren, Stewart said: “I think there's a lot of positives for Celtic at the minute. The huge disappointment for them, of course, has been the LASK result in the Champions League knockout.
“But you would like to think that Celtic in the Europa League, all things being equal and the team moving in the right direction, that they'd be able to make a fist of the Europa League this season. You can't drop out of the Champions League into the Europa League anymore, so hopefully Celtic can take a positive from the Europa League and actually go quite far in it. Because I don't see a reason why they shouldn't as a club.”
Who will Celtic face in the Europa League?
Celtic kick-off their European campaign at Parkhead next week against Hungarian side Ferencvaros. After that, they’ll face Benfica, Celta Vigo, Besiktas, Torrense, Omonia, Marseille and Union Saint-Gilloise. While admitting the ‘prestige’ of the Europa League is incomparable to that of the Champions League, manager Martin O’Neill believes there are some top quality teams in the competition this year.
When asked what his thoughts were on last month’s draw, he responded: "Benfica’s performance against Hearts would show that they are probably a Champions League team. With Marseille, you could go on forever; the competition is still very strong. I’ve known from the past that a number of teams in this competition could easily take their place in the Champions League, but the prestige is not the same.”
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