Oliver Birch 
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Celtic will travel to Stockholm to face AIK in Thursday’s Europa League play-off second-leg with a two goal cushion putting them in pole position to qualify.
Goals from Odsonne Edouard and James Forrest have given Neil Lennon’s side the perfect platform to progress through to the group stages, though we’ve all seen how a strong first-leg result can quickly backfire in the return fixture already this season.
Moving on from that, however, and FourFourTwo have revealed who Celtic’s easiest and hardest group stage opponents could be, should they progress past AIK.
According to their report, the Hoops will be placed in pot two for the draw, meaning they will avoid the likes of PSV Eindhoven, BATE Borisov and Krasnador.
Their hardest draw, therefore, could potentially see them face Kieran Tierney’s Arsenal, Eintracht Frankfurt and Istanbul Basaksehir, while the most favourable draw would be a group with Basel or Wolfsburg, Standard Liege and either of Suduva or Lugano.
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Looking at the teams who could potentially qualify for the group stages, they do appear to be the most and least favourable draws for Celtic.
However, following Rosenborg’s failure to qualify for the Champions League group stages, having the Norwegian side in the group stages seems inevitable given the recent number of meetings.
A chance for revenge against CFR Cluj would also make for entertaining viewing, should the Romanian side fail to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg of their Champions League play-off against Slavia Prague.
