Celtic need to get their Europa League campaign off to a winning start when Celta Vigo visit Glasgow on Thursday night.

You can’t ask for a better platform than scoring seven goals in your last encounter, especially on the back of a humbling defeat in Lisbon against Benfica.

Either way, despite Celtic mauling Hearts on Sunday, their upcoming test against Celta Vigo is going to be rather tricky, especially given that they have the second-best defence in La Liga this term.

Nonetheless, 67 Hail Hail provided a lowdown for the Celtic Park faithful on what to expect from Celta, who reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League last season and are going to be a far more difficult test than the broken Jambos.

Is a front three of Osmand, Duran and Hassan Celtic’s strongest attacking line-up now? If not, who comes in instead?

Yang, Jota and others are all in contention too…

Celta Vigo’s 2025/26 Europa League run and form this season

From the 74-year-old Martin O’Neill to the 38-year-old Claudio Giráldez. The Celta coach was just 14 when O’Neill started his legendary journey at Celtic after the turn of the century.

Now Giráldez will be aiming to pile more misery on the Hoops, who, despite sitting top of the Premiership table in Scotland, have zero points from their opening two Europa League matches.

But they aren’t the only ones because Celta have also lost their first two matches – Omonoia FC and most recently Juventus.

On one hand, that’s a good sign for the champions of Scotland, but on the other, Celta know how to progress through this league phase comfortably because they did it in the Europa League last term.

Celta would reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League in 2025/26, eventually getting eliminated by Bundesliga Freiburg, who got beaten by Aston Villa in the final in Istanbul.

So, there is pedigree there, but Vigo will be without former Celtic defender Carl Starfelt, as well as Spain’s World Cup-winning striker Borja Iglesias.

Over the weekend, the Spanish club beat Deportivo Alavés 2-1 to move into eighth place in the table, only their second win this term.

Celta have the second-best defence in Spain – Better than Real Madrid and Barcelona, with Athletic Club boasting the best in the whole league.

But while Celtic aren’t expected to open up Celta as they did with Hearts, there is one encouraging sign that O’Neill’s side could pounce on.

Celta Vigo’s away form ahead of trip to Glasgow

Other than Celtic’s drab showing against Rangers at Parkhead, you can’t argue too much about what the team has produced on home soil this term.

That includes Celtic’s win over LASK in the Champions League qualifier, only for the whole group to travel to Austria and collapse like a pack of cards in the second leg.

Nonetheless, if you add in Celtic’s home form this term, with how much Celta are struggling away from home, it means there are fewer excuses for those in green and white not to get a result.

Celta have been a bit of a boring bunch on the road. They have picked up plenty of draws, including three clean sheets, but they have only one goal to show for it.

Start the same front three that started against Hearts – Callum Osmand, Camilo Duran and Haissem Hassan – and let them tear apart this defensively sound Spanish side.