Celtic’s Potential Playoff Round Opponents: explained
There will be 10 clubs in the Playoff Round, ready to battle it out for a shot at the Champions League League Phase proper and as things stand, Celtic are the only confirmed seeded team; Viking of Norway, the only confirmed unseeded.
AEK Athens & LASK of Greece and Austria respectively are the only two other sides confirmed to be entering at the Playoff Round, their status of seeded/unseeded remains to be seen but we can hazard a good estimate that they will be unseeded, which I will breakdown for you.
As the weeks progress, our potential Champions League Playoff opponents are becoming clearer. The draw for the Playoff Round is made on 03 August 2026, which is before the results of the 3rd qualifying round are known. Pairs of clubs of the 3rd qualifying round are seeded by the highest ranking of the clubs involved.
For example: Red Star Belgrade will be seeded for the Playoff Round, should they navigate their QR2 and QR3 rounds vs Larne and the subsequent winner of Vikingur Reykjavik/Hapoel Be’er Sheva. However, should they progress to QR3 and then lose to the winner of Vikingur Reykajik/Hapoel Be’er Sheva in QR3, Vikingur Reykajik/Hapoel Be’er Sheva would be seeded as the Playoff Round draw is made prior to the results of QR3, with Red Star Belgrade’s ranking being highest between themselves and their opponents— still with me? Good.
So, who could Celtic face? Let’s lay it out in black and white.
With it being highly likely AEK Athens will now be unseeded, we will go with that assumption meaning Celtic will face one of the following:
AEK Athens
NK Celje / Egnatia / Ararat-Armenia / Shamrock Rovers
Omonia / Kairat Almaty / Levski Sofia / Universitatea Craiova
LASK
Viking
NK Celje face Egnatia in QR2, with the winners facing Ararat-Armenia or Shamrock Rovers in QR3, with the Armenian outfit taking a 2–0 advantage to Tallaght Stadium, whilst NK Celje and Egnatia drew 3–3 in Albania. The winners of the eventual QR3 tie will be unseeded.
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The same applies to Omonia and Kairat Almaty. The winners of the QR2 tie between Neil Lennon’s former Cypriot side and our Kazakh foes from last season, will face the winners of Levski Sofia / Universitatea Craiova. Again, the winners of the eventual QR3 tie will be unseeded. Omonia and Levski Sofia both take 1–0 leads into the second legs at Almaty and Craiova
In my opinion, and I will whisper it quietly, I am confident Celtic can progress from the Playoff Round against any of our potential opponents bar one. AEK Athens. To avoid a potential rematch from our 2018/19 qualifying campaign, we would need one of the following to lose their QR2 tie.
Slovan Bratislava
Lech Poznan
Dinamo Zagreb
Red Star Belgrade
At the time of writing, the first legs from QR2, that would directly affect AEK Athens’ seeding status, have taken place with three of the four ties seemingly all but over. And not in a good way.
Iberia 1999 0–2 Slovan Bratislava
AFG Aarhus 1–4 Lech Poznan
Thun 1–1 Dinamo Zagreb
Larne 0–4 Red Star
Our hopes of avoiding a potential trip to Athens in August rely on FC Thun, who only recently won the Swiss Super League for the first time in their 128-year history. FC Thun would be required to win the tie away in Zagreb — a tall ask.
If FC Thun win, AEK Athens will be seeded.
If we were fortunate for that to happen, however unlikely, AEK Athens would then be replaced by the winners of the QR3 tie between KI of the Faroe Islands or Kauno Zalgiris of Lithuania - and FC Thun themselves.
The draw for the Playoff Round is made on 03 August 2026, with the first leg taking place on 18 / 19 August 2026 and the second leg taking place on 25 / 26 August 2026.
If you would like to keep informed, you can follow me on twitter / X @LK95_ where I will keep track of all of the above so you don’t have to, and once the picture becomes all that bit clearer, and not still a list of 11 teams, I will return with a breakdown of our opponents.
