Jablonec vs Celtic Preview

After crashing out of the UEFA Champions League qualification, Scottish Premiership side Celtic will look to qualify for the Europa League when they take on Czech Republic side Jablonec on Thursday in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

The hosts qualified for this stage of the competition after finishing third in the Fortuna Liga last season.

The Czech side are looking to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League for the second time in their history and for the first time since 2018 when they finished bottom of their group.

Petr Rada’s men opened their domestic league campaign with a one-nil win over Ostrava but were beaten 3-0 away from home against Mlada Boleslav in their last game.

They will hope to put that disappointing loss behind them as they look to navigate this fixture and book a date with Eredivisie outfit AZ Alkmaar in the next round.

Celtic meanwhile have struggled in recent times and are heading into this tie on the back of an embarrassing opening day loss to Hearts in the Scottish League.

That loss was their first opening day loss in 24 years and extended their run without a win to six in all games—including club friendlies.

New manager Ange Postecoglou has a tough job on his hands and will look to ease the early pressure he is facing having won none of his opening three competitive games.

The under-pressure boss will know that defeat across two legs would result in demotion to the unfancied Europa Conference League.