Celtic will face Neil Lennon's Dunfermline Athletic in next month's Scottish Cup Final, and they may just have to win it to avoid a European catastrophe. On Sunday, Martin O'Neill's team essentially beat St Mirren twice at Hampden, taking the lead inside 60 seconds when Daizen Maeda tackled the ball into the net after some dilly dallying from goalkeeper Ryan Mullen. When Anthony Ralston lashed home a second in first half stoppage time, the Celts appeared home and hosed.
However, Mikael Mandron got one back for the Buddies shortly after the interval, before his towering header right at the death beat Viljami Sinisalo to force extra time, against all odds. A nervy half an hour appeared set to be in store, but that certainly is not how it transpired. Amazingly, the Hoops scored four times in just six minutes during the first half of the additional period, with Kelechi Ịheanachọ bagging two of them, while Luke McCowan and Benjamin Nygren were also on target.
Thus, the 42-time winners will be firm favourites to beat the Pars in May's final, given that Lennon's side sit fourth in the SPFL Championship. Well, given Celtic's position in the Premiership table, they may be reliant on Scottish Cup glory for European qualification.
Scottish European qualification spots 2025/26
- Champions: UEFA Champions League play-off round.
- Runners-up: UEFA Champions League second qualifying round.
- Cup winners/3rd: UEFA Europa League third qualifying round.
- 3rd/4th: UEFA Conference League second qualifying round.
- 4th/5th: UEFA Conference League second qualifying round.
If Celtic do manage to overtake Hearts and/or Rangers and win the title or finish second, they will enter Champions League qualifying. The champions begin in the play-off round, as Celtic did last August, while the runners-up must come through three rounds of qualification.
However, should the Celts remain third, which many would argue is the most-likely outcome, the permutations get more complicated. The Scottish Cup winners enter the Europa League third qualifying round in early-August, meaning victory for Dunfermline at Hampden would see them compete in the continent for the first time in almost two decades.
For Celtic, were they to finish third and lose to final, then their European campaign would commence in mid-July in the Conference League second qualifying round. This would mean they would have to come through a trio of do-or-die two-legged ties just to make it into UEFA's third-tier competition.
Motherwell, Hibernian and Falkirk will all be cheering on the Hoops next month, because then the Conference League spots would drop down to fourth and fifth. Put succinctly, even if Celtic are unable to win the title, finishing second instead of third leaves them far better off in terms of European qualification. In the dooms day scenario where everything goes wrong, the new Celtic manager will be overseeing a Conference League qualifier on 23 July, and no one wants that!
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