UEFA agree venue swap for Celtic and Cliftonville

CLIFTONVILLE will welcome Celtic to Northern Ireland on Wednesday July 17th, after UEFA gave the two clubs the green light to switch the order of the two legs.

Celtic will host Cliftonville in the second leg. Picture: SNS

Both clubs submitted a request to UEFA to play the first leg at Cliftonville’s Solitude ground, despite talk of the game being moved to a larger venue to cope with demand.

However, the governing body confirmed that the first leg will be played at the 2,600-capacity stadium in Belfast, with the second leg taking place at Parkhead six days later on Tuesday July 23rd.

Speaking to Celtic’s official website, manager Neil Lennon said: “It will be the first time I will have taken Celtic to a competitive game back home so that is something to look forward to, but we will be totally motivated, obviously, to play as strongly as we can and try and win the tie.

“It’s a great draw and it will create a lot of interest back in Belfast but I am very wary of the tie.”

Both ties are scheduled to kick off at 7.45pm.