Europa League: Scottish sides learn third-round opponents
- Published
Rangers defeated Progres Niederkorn in last season's qualifiers, having lost to them in 2017
Celtic will travel to face Latvians Riga or Tre Fiori of San Marino in the third round of Europa League qualifying on 24 September.
All four Scottish sides will be away from home if they reach the third round, with Aberdeen or Viking paired with Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon.
Should Rangers see off Lincoln Red Imps, they will take on Progres Niederkorn or Willem II.
The winners of KF Laci v Hapoel Beer-Sheva await Motherwell or Coleraine.
Celtic have dropped into the Europa League preliminaries after losing their Champions League second-round qualifier at home to Ferencvaros last week.
Riga are halfway through their domestic campaign and lost 2-0 at Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League qualifiers, while part-time outfit Tre Fiori suffered a 2-0 home defeat against Northern Ireland's Linfield.
Aberdeen have the toughest assignment of the Scottish clubs. Sporting have finished in Portugal's top four in the last seven seasons, reached the Europa League quarter-finals in 2018 and have progressed beyond the group stage three years in a row.
However, they have won only one of seven previous meetings with Scottish sides.
Rangers face a potential reunion with Progres of Luxembourg, who inflicted one of the worst results in the Ibrox club's history with a qualifying win in 2017. Rangers exacted revenge with a 2-0 aggregate success last season, but were held goalless in the away leg.
Willem II, the other possible opponents for Steven Gerrard's side, were fifth in the Eredivisie when last term's Dutch season was ended early in March.
Motherwell, currently bottom of the Scottish Premiership, could face a trip to Israel's Hapoel Beer-Sheva, who gave Celtic a scare in a 2016 Champions League play-off. Celtic were beaten 2-0 away, but scraped through 5-4 on aggregate.
The Israeli Premier League kicked off a new campaign at the weekend, with Beer-Sheva temporarily based in Jerusalem while work is done on their home stadium.
The Albanian season is scheduled to start on 12 September.
Aberdeen, Motherwell and Rangers are also all away for the second qualifying round ties on 17 September. All qualifying rounds and the play-off round are one-legged ties.