Overview
Celtic returns to the Europa League in the 2026-2027 season after failing to qualify for the Champions League for the second consecutive year. The Scottish team will have their opening match against Ferencvaros at Celtic Park, where Martin O'Neill's team is on a 10-match unbeaten streak.
Last season, Celtic experienced great disappointment when they were eliminated by Kairat Almaty in the penalty shootout in the Champions League play-offs. A similar scenario reappears this season, even in a more unbelievable way.
Celtic defeated LASK Linz 3-0 in the first leg of the Champions League play-offs. In the second leg, O'Neill's team continued to score the opening goal to increase the total score to 4-0 and seemed to have secured a ticket to the next round.
However, everything reversed dizzyingly. LASK scored 5 consecutive goals without conceding another goal, thereby winning back with a total score of 5-4. Celtic being pushed down to the Europa League in a defeat is considered one of their most bitter results in European cups recently.
After that shock, Celtic quickly regained their rhythm of play with a 4-match winning streak in the Scottish Premier League. However, the latest defeat against Rangers raised questions. Celtic lost 0-3 to their arch-rival in the quarter-finals of the Scottish League Cup.
Martin O'Neill certainly wants his players to react strongly when returning to Celtic Park. Home ground is Celtic's mainstay as they are unbeaten in their last 10 matches here. However, the achievements in the Europa League last season did not bring much peace of mind.
Celtic lost 2 out of 4 group stage matches at home. After that, they continued to suffer a 1-4 defeat to Stuttgart in the first leg of the play-offs, before being eliminated with a total score of 2-4.
Therefore, this season's Europa League is an opportunity for Celtic to correct their disappointing performances in the European arena. However, Ferencvaros is not an easy opponent to overcome.
The Hungarian team is having an impressive start to the 2026-2027 season. After 15 matches in all competitions, Ferencvaros has only lost once, besides 10 wins and 4 draws.
Notably, Ferencvaros have overcome a series of opponents to win the right to participate in the Europa League for the third consecutive season. They successively defeated Vojvodina with a total score of 5-1, surpassed Twente 3-2, Gornik 2-1 and Trabzonspor 5-0 in the qualifiers.
Balazs Borbely's team also has an 8-match unbeaten streak before traveling to Scotland. This is the basis for Ferencvaros to aim to extend their impressive streak, while trying to avenge Celtic.
The two teams have faced each other in Group G of the Europa League in the 2021-2022 season. Celtic won both matches, so Ferencvaros will have more motivation in this reunion.
Ferencvaros has become a familiar face in the Europa League knockout round in recent seasons. They have passed the group stage for two consecutive years to go deep in the tournament.
However, away record is still a point that Ferencvaros must be cautious about. In the last two Europa League seasons, they lost 7 out of 11 away matches in the group stage.
Expected lineup:
Johnstone, Lotomba, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Tierney, McGregor, Baur, Hassan, Nygren, Tounekti, Hogh.
Dibusz, O. Nagy, Raemaekers, Gomez, Cadu, A. Nagy, Corbu, Bamidele, Zachariassen, O'Dowda, Joseph.
The match between Celtic and Ferencvaros takes place at 2:00 AM on September 18 (Vietnam time).
