Celtic will discover their eight Europa League League Phase opponents in Monaco on Friday at 12pm, with the club set to be placed in Pot 2 for the draw. Martin O’Neill has made it clear, though, that the bigger issue is not the draw itself but how much work remains to be done before Celtic can feel properly ready.
The draw will set Celtic’s route through a 36-team League Phase, with four matches at home and four away. UEFA’s pot system has offered little practical advantage since the format changed at the start of the 2024/25 season, so Celtic’s Pot 2 status is more a label than a guarantee of an easier path.
What Celtic need from the League Phase
The task is straightforward enough on paper. Finish in the top 24 and Celtic move into the knockout stages. Finish in the top eight and they go straight through to the last 16.
That is the benchmark after a campaign last season that brought 11 points and a 21st-place finish, before Celtic were beaten 4-2 on aggregate by Stuttgart in the knockout tie. It also comes after a frustrating Champions League play-off exit against Austrian champions LASK, when Celtic held a 4-0 aggregate lead with 70 minutes remaining before letting the tie slip away.
O’Neill’s warning still hangs over the draw
O’Neill’s message has been consistent: Celtic are not yet the finished article. He said the team still has a lot of work to do in that aspect, adding that games of this kind expose weaknesses that cannot simply be hidden for long. His view was blunt enough — Celtic failed that test.
He also said: “We know that we are a million miles from the finished article. That’s absolutely true. I think we thought that anyway, regardless.”
That is why the draw matters, but it does not solve anything on its own. Celtic still have to register their Europa League squad by midnight on September 2, and the first League Phase fixture will follow on September 16 or September 17, with matchdays two to eight then running from October 15 to January 28.
For Celtic, the draw in Monaco is the next step. The real question is whether the squad, as it stands, can turn Pot 2 status into a place in the knockout rounds — or whether O’Neill’s warning proves to have been the more important story all along.
