Celtic v Utrecht: Europa League test for Martin O’Neill team against strugglers

Celtic would have struggled to handpick a better final fixture than Utrecht at home, knowing they will probably need a victory to lengthen their Europa League campaign.

Utrecht are in bad shape, and not just in this competition, from which they have already been eliminated.

They sit third from bottom in the Europa League table and are one of three sides yet to register a victory, having collected just one point from their seven games, although that did come against Portuguese league leaders Porto.

Having finished fourth domestically last season, this time they wallow in 11th place, seven points adrift of the final Eredivisie European play-off place.

Ron Jans’ men have lost their past five matches in all competition, including last week at home to Genk on matchday seven.

They also went out of the Dutch Cup at the start of the month while struggling to find any rhythm in the league.

Former Aberdeen loanee Jesper Karlsson made his Utrecht debut from the start against Sparta Rotterdam at the weekend as they lost again, but the Swede, who has joined from Bologna, is not eligible for their trip to Glasgow.

Fellow forward Angel Alarcon, who has arrived on loan from Porto, is in the same position on the sidelines.

Former Celtic goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas is their number one, but the Greek’s understudy, Dutchman Michael Brouwer, may get the nod for this one.

Former Celta Vigo winger Miguel Rodriguez and on-loan Lorient forward Yoann Catheline, who played with Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike in the France Under-20 side, are probably the main dangers to Martin O’Neill’s men.

This will mark the third time the sides have met, after two games in 2010 when the Dutch side recovered from a 2-0 first-leg loss at Celtic Park to move through the qualifiers of this competition 4-2 on aggregate and they will be looking to go out on a high.

However, if Celtic have designs on a deep Europa League run, this is a game that should hold no fear for them.