Seeds struggle but a Celtic win is possible

Third round seeds could not produce a win between them in last night’s Champions League qualifiers.  While Ajax earned a respectable draw away to POAK, APOEL Nicosia lost at home to Qarabag and Dinamo Zagreb drew at home to Ferencvaros, bottom seed on only 3.5 points.

Dinamo Kiev lost away to Bruges and Copenhagen scored late to secure a draw in Belgrade against Red Star.

Celtic get a chance to put that right in Cluj tonight.  The Romanian champions are four games into their domestic league and have already eliminated two higher seeds: Astana and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, so there should be no surprises for Neil Lennon.

Neil’s selection questions all surround defence.  Jozo Simunovic and Chris Jullien are both available after weekend suspensions, but the biggest concern is over the availability of Hatem Abd Elhamed.  The Israeli retired with a dead leg on Saturday after an impressive first half.

Celtic managed to get the heavy lifting done in the first leg of each of their two previous qualification ties.  I might be getting carried away after Saturday, but a win tonight would help preparations for the playoff round.  Anything seems possible when you play like that.