THE draw for the third round of the Champions League qualifiers has taken place and Celtic will face either CFR Cluj of Romania or Israel's Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the third round.
Of course, there's still the small matter of a second-round tie against Nomme Kalju to come before all that, but Celtic fans will no doubt feel encouraged by the draw after avoiding sides like Greek champions PAOK and Azerbaijan's Qarabag.
Both Cluj and Maccabi Tel-Aviv will be tricky opponents, but what do we actually know about them? Here's a quick rundown on each club's European record in recent seasons.
CFR Cluj
The Romanian side pipped Steaua Bucharest to the title last season to seal a second consecutive championship but while Cluj have impressed domestically, the Romanians have found it difficult to perform consistently in European competition.
READ MORE: Celtic drawn against Cluj or Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Champions League third qualifying round
Last season was Cluj's first in Europe since 2014/15 and it's fair to say things didn't exactly go to plan. The Romanians fell at the first hurdle in the Champions League qualifiers, losing 2-1 to Malmo in the second round, before dropping into the Europa League. A comfortable 7-0 aggregate win saw off Armenia's Alashkert before Dudelange of Luxembourg won home and away to send Cluj crashing out of Europe.
The Romanian club last reached the group stages of the Champions League back in 2012/13, where they finished in a credible third place in a group containing Manchester United, Galatasaray and Braga. Cluj then faced Inter Milan in the last 32 of the Europa League, where they were battered 5-0 by the Italians.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv
The Israeli champions won the league at a canter last term, finishing 22 points ahead of their nearest challengers Maccabi Haifa. Unlike Cluj, Maccabi Tel Aviv have featured in Europe every season since 2013/14 and have a decent amount of pedigree at this level.
The Israelis qualified for the group stages of the Champions League back in 2015/16 - kncoking out Basel on the way - but went on to lose all six of their matches in a group that contained Chelsea, Porto and Dynamo Kiev.
READ MORE: What sort of threat do Nomme Kalju pose to Celtic?
The following two seasons, Maccabi Tel Aviv reached the group stages of the Europa League but on both occasions failed to qualify for the knockout rounds. However, Maccabi Tel Aviv recorded a mightily impressive 1-0 away win over Villareal in 2017/18 and mustered a goalless draw at home to the Spaniards.
Last season, however, was one to forget for Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. The club reached the Europa League play-off round before being eliminated 4-3 by Norway's Sarpsborg.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here