Celtic in the Champions League draw LIVE as Brendan Rodgers’ side prepare to face Europe’s best

If you listen intently, you can already just about make out the strains to Zadok the Priest.

And that, dear football fans, can mean only one thing. Yeah, the Champions League is back and this time it’s mega.

Mega, of course, because UEFA have ripped up the old version and delivered a brand-new 36-team upgrade that promises yet even more millions to the clubs.

And Scotland will again have a representative in world club football’s biggest tournament as Celtic fly the Saltire. The Scottish champions will enjoy a guaranteed eight games in what used to be called the group section and could have a decent chance of progressing into the next phase.

Brendan Rodgers has called upon his board to make his life easier in the Champions League by signing top players – and by goodness he’ll need them. Celtic are pot three but the old rules no longer apply. Instead, they’ll face two sides from pot one, two from pot three and the same again from the fourth pot.

With us? Don’t worry, all will be explained in our LIVE blog ahead of the 5pm Monaco draw.

No matter how you dress it up, Brendan Rodgers’ record in the Champions League doesn’t look pretty.

His three group stage campaigns over his two spells in charge of Celtic have delivered just two wins and brought 12 defeats from 18 games. Among the losses, there have been especially painful evenings in each of his three tilts at the tournament with the Hoops – going down 7-0 in Barcelona in 2016, 7-1 at Paris St-Germain in 2017 and then last season’s 6-0 humbling away to Atletico Madrid.

Throw in his only group stage tilt as Liverpool boss in 2014-15, when he oversaw just one victory and missed out on the knockout stages, and it’s easy to see why Rodgers is so keen to address such a blot on