UEFA Europa LeagueLeague phase, matchday eightThusday, January 29, 2026Celtic Park, Glasgow CELTIC…4(Nygren 6, Viergever og 10, Engels pen 19, Trusty 66) FC UTRECHT…2(de Wit 44, Blake 62) Celtic completed the league phase of their UEFA Europa League campaign with a 4-2 home win over FC Utrecht, and in the process ensuring progress to the play-off round of the competition. Martin O’Neill’s side started the game on the front foot and established an emphatic three-goal lead inside the first 20 minutes. Benjamin Nygren got the scoring underway after just six minutes when he fired home from close range. Colby Donovan showed great initiative to take a quick corner, and when he threaded the ball through to Kieran Tierney inside the box, Tierney fired a low ball across the area which Nygren tapped home. Just four minutes later it was 2-0, and this time Nygren contributed the assist, although it was Nick Viergever who steered the ball into his own net as Daizen Maeda looked to get on the end of the ball. And on 19 minutes, the Italian referee was called to the VAR screen to review an incident inside the Utrecht box, the result of which was a penalty awarded to Celtic, with Arne Engels duly despatching the spot-kick to make it 3-0. At this stage, the Dutch side looked down and out, although they were thrown a lifeline just before the break when Dani De Wit fired home. And in added time, Kasper Schmeichel produced a great save to push a Niklas Vesterlund header round the post.Both sides showed good attacking intent at the start of the second-half, and it took a good save from former Celtic keeper, Vasilis Barkas to deny Benjamin Nygren his second goal of the night after he got a shot on target from a good attacking move involving Callum McGregor and Yang. But on 62 minutes, FC Utrecht scored their second goal of the night on the counter attack, with Adrian Blake firing beyond Kasper Schmeichel from outside the area. However, within four minutes Celtic had restored their two-goal advantage, with Auston Trusty heading home an Arne Engels corner. Celtic pushed forward in search of a fifth goal, while Utrecht continued to look dangerous on the break, and Liam Scales had to be alert to block a Dani de Wit shot from inside the box. There was to be no further scoring in the game, with Celtic running out 4-2 winners on the night to book their place in the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League.
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