Celtic’s strong position

After a 7-1 thumping in Dortmund and an initial 5-1 victory against Slovan Bratislava, Celtic now sits on four points in the Champions League after three games thanks to a good defensive effort in Italy. They are currently in 20th place out of 36 teams, barely below PSG on goal differential. The top eight teams advance straight to the round of 16, while teams in places nine through twenty-four advance to the playoffs.

Brendan Rodgers’ team would almost certainly qualify for the playoffs with two more victories from their remaining five games, which is doable given their schedule that includes trips to Dinamo Zagreb before the season ends and games against RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, and Young Boys at Celtic Park.

Rangers’ repair job

Rangers, meantime, have undone the harm done to their goal differential by the 4-1 home loss to Lyon three weeks ago by scoring four goals without a response against the Romanian champions. They now have six points in the Europa League, sitting 11th in the standings with a +3 goal differential, just three positions outside the automatic qualifying slots for the round of sixteen, after to the victory and their 2-0 triumph over Malmo on the road on matchday one.

The team led by Philippe Clement will probably need ten points, or even nine, to advance to the knockout stage, but their next four games are all in the difficult category: Olympiacos and Nice away, Tottenham at home, Manchester United away at Old Trafford, and a more winnable matchup at home against Union Saint-Gilloise to end the league phase.

Hope for Hearts

Hearts’ victories in their first two games against Dinamo Minsk and Omonoia have left them in a strong position to go to the Conference League knockout stage, where they will join eight other teams with a maximum of six points.

With only six league games, the Conference League is a little different from the Champions and Europa League. As a result, the Jambos are already one-third of the way through their season. With the English Premier League club on +5 and Hearts on +3, Neil Critchley’s team is currently sixth in the 36-team standings, behind leaders Chelsea on goal differential.

As one of the top 24 teams, Hearts will probably need seven points to advance to the knockout stage, although depending on outcomes and goal differential, six points might even be sufficient.

The Bundesliga team Heidenheim will visit Tynecastle in Hearts’ next three difficult games, followed by journeys to Belgium and Denmark to play Cercle Brugge and Copenhagen, respectively. Even if Hearts lose all three, they end the league phase at home against their weakest opponents on paper, Moldovan team Petrocub, where a win or draw would probably put them in the play-offs. However, if they win any of those games, they could have a chance to finish in the top eight and advance directly to the round of sixteen.

The cash cow

All three teams saw an increase in prize money this week, with Celtic benefiting the most from their €700,000 draw in Bergamo, bringing their total profits to nearly €35 million before ticket sales. Hearts added €400,000 to their season-ending prize money of €5.5 million before ticket sales, while Rangers added €450,000 to their €12 million European reward.

The coefficient

A nice boost was also given to Scotland’s crucial UEFA coefficient. In just one week, Rangers and Hearts both provided 0.4 points, while Celtic added 0.2 points, bringing Scotland’s season total up from 3.4 points to 4.4 points. Scotland has already surpassed Israel to reach 16th place in the coefficient rankings, 1.3 points behind Austria in 12th place, in the fight to regain automatic entry into the Champions League for domestic title winners for the 2026–2027 season.