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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
Sport
Mark McDougall

Celtic's Europa League opponents revealed as Hoops handed Seville return and Jeremie Frimpong reunion

Celtic have been handed a tough draw in the Europa League group stage.

Ange Postecoglou's men qualified for the tournament proper by knocking AZ Alkmaar out with a 3-2 aggregate win.

A 2-0 home leg victory put them in control before Kyogo Furuhashi opened the scoring early in the return leg in the Netherlands on Thursday night.

Defensive errors almost cost them as AZ got back to 2-1 in front on the night but the Dutch side couldn't find a way through in the second half and Celtic held on.

But now Postecoglou's side have been given an interesting set of fixtures for the group stage of the tournament which kicks off in less than two weeks.

They were in pot two for the tournament and drew Bayer Leverkusen, Real Betis and Ferencvaros, who knocked Celtic out of the Champions League qualifiers last season.

Former right back Jeremie Frimpong will return to Celtic Park with the Bundesliga side, while Celtic fans finally have an excuse to return to Seville for a meeting with Real Betis.

Hundreds of thousands famously descended don the southern Spanish city for the final in 2003 against Porto. This season's final is to be held there again, although at the home of Betis' city rivals, the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Celtic are now regulars in the tournament but will want to do better than they did last year when they finished bottom of their section.

Shock heavy defeats to Sparta Prague were the main concern although they did do the double over French champions Lille.

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