Testing Europa League trip to Riga could lie ahead for Celtic
Celtic could face a potentially tricky trip to play Riga in the third round of Europa League qualifying later this month.
Like Neil Lennon’ s side, who suffered a painful defeat against Fer encvaros,Ri ga dropped into the Europa League qualifying rounds after losing their Champions League second qualifier last week, in their case against Maccabi Tel Aviv. They face San Marino side Tre Fiori in a second qualifying round tie in Estonia two weeks tomorrow. Riga defeated Copenhagen at home last season in a Europa League play-off tie.
Remarkably, after Monday’s second qualifying round draw saw R angers, Aberdeen and Motherwell handed away ties, all four Scottish sides will also need to travel if the full complement of teams reach the third round.
The one-off nature of the ties, which will be settled on the night, introduces further jeopardy in the bid to reach the play-off round, which will also be decided over 90 minutes with extra time and penalties coming into play if necessary.
If Rangers pre vail against Lincoln Red Imps, they will take on old foes Proges Niederkorn or Willem II, based in Tilburg at the Koning Willem (King William) II stadium.
Former Celtic centre -back and current Liverpool skipper Virgil Van Dijk played as a youth for the club and Jimmy Calder wood managed there for a season in the mid-1990s.
Of more intrigue might be the prospective meeting with Progres Niederkorn, with whom Rangers already have a decidedly mixed histor y. The Luxembourg side’s ground is the scene of the Ibrox club’s worstever European defeat when they lost 2-0 under Pedro Caixinha at the star t of the 201718 season, which meant the par t-timers had over turned a 1-0 defeat at Ibrox. Rangers got a measure of revenge last season under Steven Gerrard when they overcame Progres with a 2- 0 aggregate win in the second qualifying round of the Europa League. However, they still could not beat them in Luxembourg, where the S cots had to settle for a 0-0 draw. They might now get a third attempt to put this record right.
The pick of the potential ties belongs to Aberdeen, whose prize for over coming stiff opposition in Viking Stavangar will be a trip to face Sporting Lisbon at the Jose Alvalade stadium, the scene of last month’s Champions League final b et ween winners Bayern Munich and Paris SaintGermain.
The Portugal league season does not begin until the weekend of 20 September, with the third qualifying tie, when Sporting Lisbon will host either Aberdeen or Viking, taking place the following midweek.
Motherwell, who face Northern Irish side Coleraine, will be vying for a tie against the winners ofKFL ac iv Hapoel BeerSh eva. Laci, from Albania, lost out narrowly to the same opponents from Israel at the first-round stage last season.