Gary Lineker has Celtic among Champions League playoff favourites but caveats 'one downside'
Gary Lineker expects Celtic to be among the favourites to reach the playoff spots in this season's Champions League.
The former England striker was blown away by the Hoops as they blitzed Slovan Bratislava 5-1 in their opening fixture of the revamped competition. It was a masterclass by the Scottish champions and had the rest of Europe taking notice. Lineker acknowledged that it might have come against lesser opposition than they will face before the League Phase is complete, but the presenter believes they can make the knockout stages with a bit of luck.
He did, however, take stock and reveal the one potential downside for Celts of making the latter stages. Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast, Lineker said: “Talking of exciting football and brilliant stuff, what about Celtic banging in five? Now you would say they’re going to play against teams they can beat and I would say probably one of the favourites to reach the play-offs this year.
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“I’ll remind everyone again because the teams between 8th and 24th will play in the play-off games to join the top eight in the Champions League last 16. So it will be interesting to see. I think with this format, let’s wait and see and see how it pans out. The only downside to that is that there’s even more football for the players. But a brilliant win for Celtic and a fantastic start for them.”
Micah Richards chimed in and suggested that the Hoops have a better chance this season than ever to reach the knockout rounds, adding: “You know what, everyone talks about this new Champions League format and no disrespect to Celtic, in previous years and recent history, they might have had an opportunity to win a game maybe in one of the later rounds [of the group stage].
“It might not have been one of the greatest games, it was sort of like for pride. Can we finish third and get into the Europa League?”