The Champions League playoff round ties have all been settled and Celtic and Rangers now know the make up of Thursday's draw.
Gio van Bronckhorst has been there and done it in this competition as a player and manager and now he'll watch on from the Ibrox dugout as his charges grace the top European stage just as he did in royal blue. It's all new for Ange Postecoglou and he's had to wait for the draw in Istanbul after last season's Premiership title win ensured the Hoops went straight into the hat for this stage.
The champions already had a rough idea of who they could be drawn against in Istanbul on Thursday, and now their fiercest rivals are in the mix as well, although they can't be drawn together.. Giants such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester City are all top seeds, alongside mega rich Paris-SG, Ajax, Porto, AC Milan and Rangers’ Europa League final foes, Eintracht Frankfurt. They'd likely be the team that Celtic want to draw from Pot 1, but famous last words and all that after their exploits in Seville.
It doesn't get any easier in Pot 2. Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Spurs are just some of the big names included in the second tier of the draw. When you consider who they can also end up in a section with, then there could well be more than one dreaded group of death. Juventus and RB Leipzig are the others that could come out of the hat second.
Realistically, third is what Celtic and Rangers will be aiming for to keep their Euro adventure alive beyond Christmas, unless a favourable draw opens up the possibility of the knock-out stages. Finish outside the top two, and it's into the Europa League.
But there are some well respected names in Pot 3 as well. Their rivals proved last season that Borussia Dortmund can be beaten, but Inter Milan, Sevilla and Napoli are certainly no mugs.
The results of Tuesday and Wednesday night’s playoff round qualifying second legs determined the full make up of Pots 3 and 4, with Celtic in the latter alongside Club Brugge and their city neighbours.
Benfica booked their spot in the group stage with a 5-0 aggregate win over Dynamo Kyiv. Czech side Viktoria Plzen saw off the Hoops previous qualifying opponents Qarabag with a 2-1 win over two legs. Maccabi Haifa did enough to sneak past Red Star Belgrade 5-4 on aggregate.
Wednesday saw Dinamo Zagreb defeat Bodo/Glimt 4-2 on aggregate.. FC Copenhagen's goalless draw against Trabzonspor meant the Danish outfit sneaked through 2-1 over two legs
Seedings in full
Pot 1 - Real Madrid , Eintracht Frankfurt, Manchester City, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, PSG, Porto, Ajax.
Pot 2 - Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, Tottenham.
Pot 3 - Borussia Dortmund, RB Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Sporting CP, Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica.
Pot 4 - Celtic, Club Brugge, Maccabi Haifa, Viktoria Plzen, Marseille, Copenhagen, Dinamo Zagreb, Rangers.
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