Celtic to face Slavia Prague in play-off if they beat Cluj

5th Aug 2019 | Source: BBC

Slavia Prague lost to Chelsea in last season's Europa League quarter-finals

Celtic will face Czech side Slavia Prague in the Champions League play-off round should the Scots defeat Cluj in their third qualifying round.

Neil Lennon's side face the Romanians in the first leg away from home on Wednesday.

Should Celtic lose to Cluj, they drop into the Europa League play-off stage and have been drawn against Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova or AIK of Sweden.

Slavia won their domestic title for a fifth time last season.

The side managed Jindrich Trpisovsky, who qualified directly to the Champions league play-off stage after finished four points clear of Viktoria Plzen, completed a domestic league and cup double by defeating Banik Ostrava 2-0.

They also reached the quarter-finals of last season's Europa League, losing 5-3 on aggregate to eventual winners Chelsea having knocked out Spanish side Sevilla in the previous round.

In addition to a sprinkling of Czech Republic internationals, Trpisovsky's squad includes former Anderlecht and Sparta Prague winger Nicolae Stanciu, who has played 31 times for Romania.

While Scottish clubs have won only six of their 18 ties against teams from Czech Republic or the old Czechoslovakia, Celtic have won all three of theirs, although the last of those was a 3-1 aggregate win over Teplice in the Uefa Cup in 2004.

Meanwhile, last season's beaten semi-finalists, Ajax, will face APOEL of Cyprus or Qarabag of Azerbaijan if the Dutch side overcome PAOK of Greece.

If Red Star Belgrade, who won the trophy in 1991, defeat Denmark's Copenhagen, they will next take on Young Boys of Switzerland.

Porto, the 1987 winners who qualified as runners-up in Portugal, will take on Istanbul Basaksehir of Turkey or Olympiakos of Greece if they defeat Russian side Krasnodar.