Celtic v Utrecht live: Europa League updates from race to qualify for knockouts in league phase finale

Utrecht XI: Barkas; Vesterlund, van der Hoorn, Viergever, Murkin; Engwanda, Zechiel; Rodridguez, Cathline, Blake; De Wit.

Subs: Brouwer, Gadellaa, Van den Berg, Bozdogan, El Karouani, Didden, El Arguioui, Menzo, Haller, van Ommeren.

Celtic XI: Schmeichel; Donovan, Trusty, Scales, Tierney, McGregor, Engels. Nygren, Yang, Tounekti, Maeda.

Subs: Sinisalo, Doohan, Balikwisha, McCowan, Iheanacho, Bernardo, Murray, Forrest, McArdle, Ralston, Hale, Isiguzo.

The line-ups should be released in the next five minutes, so here’s a reminder of the early team news…

Alistair Johnston, Callum Osmand, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Jota, Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi will miss out here through injury.

And Martin O’Neil must make do without the suspended Reo Hatate.

Kieran Tierney is a doubt after coming off against Hearts.

Celtic have won their past two major European matches against Dutch opponents, both times beating Feyenoord (in December 2023 and November 2025).

And Utrecht are winless in 10 away major European matches (D2 L8) since winning 4-0 at MSK Zilina in October 2003 – they’ve only netted two goals in their 10 away games since.

Here’s the report from a dramatic night in Bologna for Celtic last time out in this competition…

Reo Hatate opened the scoring early on before collecting two yellow cards in three minutes. Auston Trusty doubled Celtic’s lead but Martin O’Neill’s side came under sustained pressure after the interval and goals from Thijs Dallinga and Jonathan Rowe brought Bologna level.

Although the Italian side managed 37 attempts at goal in total, both teams had chances to win it before the game finished 2-2.

Here’s the full list of Europa League fixtures for this evening:

Celtic currently sit 24th in the Europa League table, meaning they occupy the last of the play-off spots ahead of kick-off.

They cannot enter the automatic qualification spots even if they win, but they could fall out of the competition with either a draw or a loss tonight, with as many as six clubs able to leapfrog them with wins this evening.

Here’s a reminder of the standings going into the final match of the Europa League league phase.

Celtic come into the final match in 24th, knowing a loss would likely see them drop out of the competition.

The match is scheduled to take place on Thursday 29th January 2026 at Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland, with kick-off set for 8pm.

The game will be shown live on TNT Sports 4 from 7pm, with subscribers also able to stream online via discovery+.

Celtic predicted lineup: Schmeichel; Donovan, Trusty, Murray, Scales; Engels, McGregor, Nygren; Hyun-Jun, Maeda, Tounekti

Utrecht predicted lineup: Barkas; Horemans, Didden, Viergever, El Karouani; Engwanda, Bozdogan; Cathline, De Wit, Blake; Rodriguez