Celtic to face in Dortmund & Villa in Champions League

On paper Celtic’s more favourable fixtures all come at home.

RB Leipzig, who beat the Scottish champions twice two seasons ago, came out of Pot 1 after finishing fourth in the Bundesliga last season, 25 points adrift of title winners Bayer Leverkusen.

Young Boys of Switzerland and Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia both won their domestic titles comfortably last season, with the latter making their debut in this competition.

And Club Bruges narrowly won the Belgian top flight last season, having managed to reach the Champions League knockout stages in 2023.

Away from home, though, Celtic’s fixtures appear more daunting.

A trip to the Westfalenstadion to face Dortmund will provide a stern test, although the German giants are now under new management in Nuri Sahin having lost to Real Madrid at Wembley under Edin Terzic in June.

Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, meanwhile, finished fourth in the Premier League to qualify for this competition for the first time and have a strong home record.

Serie A club Atalanta claimed their first ever European trophy by ending Bayer Leverkusen’s long unbeaten run in the Europa League final.

And Zagreb are the reigning Croatian champions and are unbeaten since March, when they exited the Conference League after a heavy defeat by PAOK Salonika.