Celtic face Vorskla Poltava in Champions League play-off

9th Sep 2024 | Source: BBC

Celtic will face Ukrainian side Vorskla Poltava for a place in the Women's Champions League group stage.

The Scottish champions, who have never previously reached the group stage, were unseeded in the champions' path of Monday's draw.

The Ukrainian champions are playing in the Champions League for a fifth season but have only progressed beyond the qualifying rounds once - losing to Shymkent of Kazakhstan in the round of 32 three years ago.

Celtic, who secured the Scottish title for the first time last season, won their first-round mini-tournament for the first time at the third attempt in Lithuania after beating KuPS of Finland 3-1 then hosts Gintra 2-0.

Vorskla Poltava, meanwhile, eased aside Latvian side Riga 5-0 before beating hosts Ferencvaros 2-0 in Hungary.

The second-round ties will be played on 18-19 and 25-26 September, with Celtic hosting the return leg.

Seven champions path and five league path ties will decide the final spots in the group stage and who joins automatic entrants Barcelona, Lyon, Bayern Munich and Chelsea.

Who are Vorskla Poltava?

Vorskla Poltava are currently 29th in Uefa's co-efficient table, 53 places above Celtic, although it should be pointed out that Sunday's opponents, Gintry, were 36 spots ahead of the Glasgow side.

Indeed, of the seeded sides in the champions path side of the draw, only Twente of Netherlands are ranked below the five-time Ukrainian champions.

Vorskla Poltava have played Scottish opposition once previously, drawing 1-1 with Hibernian in the 2017 Champions League league qualification group stage when the Edinburgh side finished second behind hosts Olimpia Cluj of Romania.

The Ukrainian side were then called Zhytlobud-2 Kharkiv but moved cities and changed their name in 2022.

Former Ukraine midfielder Natalya Zinchenko has been team boss since 2021, the 44-year-old having spent the previous three years as national head coach.

Eleven of her squad are part of Volodymyr Pyatenko's current Ukraine set-up, including 60-times capped attacking midfielder Yana Kalinina.