Paris: Celtic cruised into the Europa League group stage on Thursday, the Scottish champions later joined in Friday’s draw by their fierce rivals Rangers.
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While Celtic crushed Swedish club AIK 4-1 in their play-off second leg to progress 6-1 on aggregate, Rangers edged Legia Warsaw 1-0 thanks to Alfredo Morelos’ injury-time header after a goalless first leg.
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Steven Gerrard’s Rangers had part of their Ibrox ground closed as a punishment by UEFA for racist behaviour of their fans earlier in the competition.
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Also into Friday’s draw in Monaco were Wolves.
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The English Premier League side, playing in their first European campaign since 1981, beat Torino 2-1 — the goals coming from Raul Jimenez and Leander Dendoncker — at Molineux to go through 5-3.
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In Sweden, James Forrest opened the scoring after a one-two with Odsonne Edouard for Celtic.
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That was Forrest’s seventh goal in his last eight games.
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Sebastian Larsson then gave AIK a glimmer of hope from the penalty spot but a minute later Mikey Johnston had his low cross fumbled over the line by AIK keeper Oscar Linner.
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Late goals from Christopher Jullien and Lewis Morgan rounded off a good night’s work by Neil Lennon’s side in the Solna Arena.
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But Lennon was left worrying over the fitness of Kristoffer Ajer, who went off injured early to make him a major doubt for Sunday’s visit to Rangers.
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“Ajer has a groin strain, so he is very doubtful,” reported Lennon, who had special praise for playmaker Ryan Christie.
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Refugees from the Champions league after being knocked out by Cluj in the qualifiers, Lennon described his side’s performance as “awesome”.
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“We have a big one on Sunday, but we will enjoy this evening. It’s been a difficult couple of weeks after the Cluj result but the lads have bounced back brilliantly.”
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Celtic were not the only wide margin winners, with PSV Eindhoven progressing 7-0 on aggregate after a 4-0 win over Apollon Limassol in Cyprus, and Dutch side Feyenoord, 6-0 aggregate winners over Israel’s Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
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But Northern Ireland’s Linfield were knocked out on away goals after a 2-1 loss at Qarabag left them tied 4-4 with the Azerbaijan side.
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Other teams marching on to the competition proper were Spain’s Espanyol, FC Copenhagen and Eintracht Frankfurt.
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