Former England striker Gary Lineker has heaped praise on Celtic, labelling them as one of the top contenders to advance to the knockout stage of the Champions League.
Celtic kicked off their league phase campaign in impressive fashion, securing a commanding 5-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday.
Following this dominant performance, Lineker is optimistic about the Scottish Premiership champions' prospects in Europe this season.
With the tournament's revamped format allowing the top 24 teams to enter the play-off rounds for a chance to reach the last-16, Lineker's enthusiasm for Celtic's potential is palpable after witnessing their dominant display against the Slovakian side.
“Talking of exciting football and brilliant stuff, what about Celtic banging in five?," Lineker said on The Rest is Football Podcast.
"Now you would say they’re going to play against teams they can beat and I would say probably one of the favourites to reach the play-offs this year.
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“I’ll remind everyone again because the teams between 8th and 24th will play in the play-off games to join the top eight in the Champions League last 16. So it will be interesting to see.
"I think with this format, let’s wait and see and see how it pans out. The only downside to that is that there’s even more football for the players.
"But a brilliant win for Celtic and a fantastic start for them.”
"You know what, everyone talks about this new Champions League format and no disrespect to Celtic, in previous years and recent history, they might have had an opportunity to win a game maybe in one of the later rounds [of the group stage]," he explained.
“It might not have been one of the greatest games, it was sort of like for pride. Can we finish third and get into the Europa League?”
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