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Celtic and Slovan Bratislava have faced on two previous occasions, with both of those meetings coming in the quarter-final of the 1963-64 Cup Winners’ Cup. The Scottish side won both legs by a 1-0 scoreline, before being eliminated in the semi-final by MTK Budapest (3-4 on aggregate).
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Slovan Bratislava’s last victory over a British side in major European competition was in September 1975, beating Derby County 1-0 in the first round of the European Cup (first leg). Since then, they have played nine such matches and failed to win all of them (D2 L7), including defeats in the last five.
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This is the 28th edition of the European Cup that Celtic have been involved in, with Manchester United (30) the only British team to appear in more (Liverpool also on 28, as of 2024-25).
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Celtic have never won their opening game of a Champions League campaign, drawing two and losing 10 of those. They’ve not scored a goal in their opening match since 2006-07, in a 3-2 defeat at Manchester United.
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Slovan Bratislava have qualified for the Champions League for the first time, becoming just the fourth Slovakian side to play in the competition, after FC VSS Kosice in 1997/98, FC Petrzalka 1898 in 2005/06 and MSK Zilina in 2010/11 (all of whom went out at the group stage).
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Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has won just 13% of his games in the Champions League (W3 D6 L15); the lowest win percentage of any manager with 20+ matches in the competition.
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Celtic conceded the most goals of any side between the 75th and 90th minute (not including added time) in the Champions League last season (6), while also failing to score themselves in that period.
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Celtic midfielder Paulo Bernardo averaged 86.5 high-intensity pressures per 90 in the Champions League last season; the most of any player in the tournament (min. 300 minutes played).
Celtic v Slovan Bratislava: Key stats
