Celtic discover opening qualifying opponents

Estonia or Gibraltar bound

The draw for the Champions league second qualifying round was made today in Nyon and we now know who the first competitive opponents of the Brendan Rodgers era will be.

Celtic could potentially have been handed a very tricky tie against IFK Norrkoping, the reigning Swedish champions, who are entering at this round due to having no recent European experience to call upon. Instead however, we will travel to either Estonia to face Flora Tallinn, or Gibraltar, to face Lincoln Red Imps FC.

At this stage, the tie was always likely to be fairly simple on paper(despite the aforementioned Swedes). However I'm sure Rodgers will urge caution, as anything is possible in high stake games such as these.

FC Flora Tallinn


Funnily enough, the Estonian champions are also famous in their home country for playing in green and white. They are currently the most successful side in Estonia along with their rivals Levadia Tallinn, with both never having been relegated from the Estonian top flight.

They play their home football at the uniquely named 'Le Coq' arena, which gains its name from a brewing company sponsor. It appears to be a neat little stadium, holding just under 10,000 spectators:



Despite their success at home, Flora have found it difficult to make any real impact on European football, much like the majority of the champions hailing from smaller footballing nations. They have failed to win any form of qualifier since the 2006/2007 season and have lost to both Macedonian and Albanian opponents in the previous two seasons at the 1st round stage. Both of those ties however came in the Europa league qualifiers.

Their squad is made up of Estonian born players for the most part, with only 2 foreigners to choose from.

Lincoln Red Imps:


In terms of unknown quantities in European football, there aren't many more appropriate I feel than Lincoln Red Imps. Having only made their first appearance in the competition in 2014, the Gibraltan champions would surely relish a tie against Celtic with a chance to really make a name for themselves firmly on offer.

As a semi-pro club hailing from an island inhabited by around only 30,000 people, they will be viewed as underdogs against Flora. Their record so far in Europe is not all that embarrassing however and they even made it to the second round of qualifying last year, before falling to Midtjylland of Denmark. The score over both legs though was anything but emphatic, at 3-0 to the Danes.

If the Celts do end up travelling to Gibraltar, they will play in the shadow of the famous 'rock of Gibraltar', which watches over Lincoln's home stadium, Victoria Park.



The dates and times of the ties are still yet to be officially confirmed by Celtic.