Celtic smashed Icelandic champions KR Reykjavík 6-0 to ease into the second round of Champions League qualifying with another former winner Red Star Belgrade also comfortable 5-0 victors over Gibraltar’s Europa.
With the 2019/20 Champions League
winners to be crowned this week, qualifying is well underway for places in the
group stages of the 2020/21 competition and Celtic showed little sign of
rustiness after a 10-day break with two fixtures postponed due to left-back
Boli Bolingoli breaking government regulations for not quarantining after a
trip to Spain.
Mohammed Elyounoussi opened the
floodgates after just five minutes before an Arnor Adalsteinsson own goal and
Christopher Jullien’s towering header made it 3-0 before the break.
Greg Taylor, Odsonne Edouard and
Elyounoussi’s second rounded off the scoring to set up a meeting with Hungarian
champions Ferencvaros or Sweden’s Djurgardens next week.
“Delighted with the result and with
the amount of goals we scored to get us going again,” said Celtic boss Neil
Lennon.
El Fardou Ben Nabouhane scored a
hat-trick as Red Star eased into round two in Belgrade as they aim to reach the
group stages for a third consecutive season.
Northen Ireland champions Linfield
came close to springing a surprise against Legia Warsaw but went down 1-0 to
Jose Kante’s goal eight minutes from time.
Qarabag and Dinamo Brest, who beat
Astana 6-3, also secured their places in round two.
