Celtic have confirmed their place in the knockout stages of the Europa League, thanks to a final-day win over Utrecht at Celtic Park. Martin O’Neil’s side went into the game knowing that a win would give them a good chance of making it into the top 24 places.

Things started well for the Scottish side when they went ahead in the sixth minute through Benjamin Nygren. It took just another four minutes for them to double their lead through a Nick Viergever own goal.

Celtic were 3-0 up before 20 minutes had passed, when the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Arne Engels made no mistake to give the Bhoys a commanding lead.

Utrecht did get a goal back before the break through Dani de Wit, and nerves may have been jangling when Adrian Blake made it 3-2 just after the hour mark. But the mood in the stadium turned to celebration again when Auston Trusty restored Celtic’s two goal lead.

The win, along with other results on Thursday night has seen Celtic finish the league stage in 21st position and therefore qualify for the knock-out play-off stage. Their opponents will be confirmed in the draw which take place at on Friday, 30 January (12pm) – but there are just a few they can now face.

In the draw, clubs are paired based on their positions and are put into pairs. Celtic will be unseeded and paired with 22nd-place Ludogrets.

They will then be drawn against one of the seeded pair of clubs who finished in 11th and 12th place. It means that Celtic will either face Stuttgart of Germany or Ferencvaros of Hungary in the play-off stage.

The clash wil then take place over two legs with the first game on Thursday, 19 February, and the second a week later on Thursday, 26 February. Winning the play-off will mean progression to the round of 16, where the winners will face either Braga or Porto, both of Portugal.

The draw for the round of 16 stage will take place on Friday, 27 February. After that the path to a potential final will start to come clearer.