NafisaCeltic continued their perfect start to the Scottish Premiership season on Wednesday night, although Martin O’Neill’s side had to work hard for another narrow victory on the road.
The Hoops travelled to McDiarmid Park knowing another three points would keep them at the summit, but St Johnstone proved to be anything but straightforward opposition.
Celtic were unable to find a breakthrough during a goalless first half, with debutant goalkeeper Sam Johnstone already making an important contribution at the other end to keep his new side level.
The summer signing was called upon again after the interval, underlining the fact that this was far from a routine evening for the Premiership champions.
Celtic eventually found the breakthrough seven minutes into the second half.
Haissem Hassan delivered a low ball across the face of goal and Mika Baur was in the right place at the right time, converting from close range to register his first goal for the club.
It proved to be enough.
Despite Celtic having opportunities to put the game beyond doubt, St Johnstone remained in the contest until the final whistle, with Kelechi Høgh also seeing a chance denied by an impressive save.
The 1-0 victory means Celtic have now won all six of their Premiership matches, maintaining their 100 per cent record and strengthening their position at the top of the table.
There was plenty for O’Neill to take from the night, too.
Baur’s first Celtic goal was particularly encouraging, while Hassan continued to show why Celtic were keen to bring him to Glasgow. Johnstone’s debut also gave the manager another option between the sticks.
But Celtic’s latest victory comes at a time when there is another development that could have a significant impact on the club’s European ambitions.
And it has nothing to do with what happened at McDiarmid Park.
UEFA change could make Celtic’s European route much tougher
UEFA have tinkered with the Europa League qualifying process once again, with a major change to the play-off structure set to have consequences for Scottish clubs.
From next season, the final qualifying round — commonly known as the play-off round — will be split into champions and non-champions paths.
For Celtic, that creates an intriguing situation given their position at the top of Scottish football.
The Premiership champions will enter the Champions League at the second qualifying round, while the Scottish runners-up and third-placed side will enter the Conference League at the same stage.
The Scottish Cup winners will enter the Europa League at the first qualifying round unless they have already secured European football through their league position.
If that happens, the European place would pass down to the next eligible team in the league.
Either way, a club entering the Europa League through that route would find itself in the non-champions path.
And that could make the final hurdle considerably more difficult.
Celtic could face a major seeding problem
Should a Scottish club reach the Europa League play-off round through the non-champions route, it would no longer be able to draw teams that have dropped out of Champions League qualifying.
That is a significant change because those clubs can often provide more favourable potential opposition than some of the sides occupying the higher positions in the Europa League qualifying structure.
The coefficient situation makes the issue even more important.
Celtic and Rangers’ European coefficients have dropped to a level that could leave both clubs vulnerable to being unseeded in a Europa League non-champions play-off draw.
For any other Scottish representative, the situation would be even more difficult.
To put the potential difference into perspective, the sort of opposition involved this season included clubs such as Anderlecht, Benfica and Viktoria Plzen.
Those are precisely the kind of names Scottish clubs would rather avoid when everything is on the line over two play-off legs.
There is, however, one crucial escape route for Celtic.
If the Scottish champions enter the Champions League qualifying rounds and subsequently drop into the Europa League play-off round, they would be seeded.
They would also be protected from drawing the highest-ranked teams coming through the non-champions route.
That makes Champions League qualification particularly important for Celtic — even if the club ultimately fails to reach the Champions League proper.
Celtic already know how quickly things can change
The importance of that protection is made even clearer by Celtic’s recent European experience.
The Hoops somehow missed out on Champions League football this season after surrendering a four-goal first-leg advantage against LASK before dropping into the Europa League.
That collapse transformed what had appeared to be a straightforward route into a much more complicated European campaign.
Celtic therefore know better than most that reaching the Champions League qualifying rounds does not necessarily guarantee Champions League football.
But the new UEFA structure could mean that simply being in that champions route carries its own value.
Even if a club ultimately falls short of reaching the Champions League, dropping into the Europa League from the Champions League qualifying route would give it a different level of protection in the play-off stage.
That could prove particularly valuable for Celtic given their coefficient position.
And the contrast with the rest of Scottish football is significant.
Rangers exited Europe altogether after defeats to Jagiellonia Bialystok in the Europa League and Jablonec in the Conference League.
Hearts dropped from the Champions League qualifiers to the Europa League after defeats to Sturm Graz and Benfica before eventually beating Rapid Vienna in the Conference League play-off.
Motherwell and Hibernian were also eliminated at the play-off stage by Freiburg and Gent respectively.
The experiences underline just how unforgiving the latter stages of UEFA qualification can be for Scottish clubs.
For Celtic, however, the message is slightly different.
Their perfect Premiership start has them sitting exactly where they want to be domestically, and Wednesday night’s win at St Johnstone extended that flawless league record.
But UEFA’s new system means that maintaining their position at the top of Scottish football could become even more valuable.
The champions route may offer Celtic something that the non-champions path simply cannot — a degree of protection if their Champions League campaign ends before the group or league phase.
And with Celtic already six wins from six, O’Neill’s side have given themselves the perfect domestic platform.
The challenge now is ensuring that dominance continues long enough to secure the European route that could ultimately make all the difference.
Nafisa
