AND then there were two. St Johnstone’s defeat last night to FK Trakai means that Celtic and Aberdeen stand alone to carry Scotland’s flag into European competition this season

I would expect that the Dons at least will make a decent fist of reaching the group stages of the Europa League.

But, ultimately, it looks as though the burden of carrying the flag for Scotland in Europe will once again fall upon the shoulders of Celtic this season, and they are more than able to rise to that challenge.

The result for Rangers on Tuesday night was a shocker, and there is no doubt that it was both embarrassing to the club itself and probably damaging to the wider reputation of the Scottish game too.

But I would expect Celtic to restore some of our credibility outside of our borders by making the Champions League group stages, and performing better than they did last year once they get there.

Of course, it won’t be easy. And Celtic will be looking no further ahead than Linfield a week from today.

But if you had to put me on the spot, I would say that there is next to no chance of Celtic suffering the same sort of embarrassment against their Northern Irish opponents as Rangers did against Progres Neiderkorn.

You simply can’t compare this Celtic side under Brendan Rodgers to the Rangers side under Pedro Caixinha that travelled to Luxembourg for the game on Tuesday night.

One is settled, successful, and each individual player knows exactly what their role in the team is and what the manager wants from them.

The other has been thrown together, are disjointed, and the players don’t seem to know what they are being asked to do out on the pitch. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which is which.

Whether the Portuguese can get his new boys into shape to mount a challenge in the league, only time will tell.

It goes without saying though that Celtic will be taking nothing for granted when they visit Windsor Park, and that has been shown in their preparation compared to what Rangers did for their game against Progres.

The fact that Rangers were dumped out so unexpectedly might even do Celtic a favour, and just serve that little reminder that strange things do happen in football.

The Ibrox side had the handicap of time of course, but a couple of games behind closed doors was never likely to be enough to bed new players into a team and get that match sharpness that you need. It should have been enough to beat the fourth-best team in Luxembourg, mind you.

In contrast, Celtic have been preparing in Austria in a top-class facility, and have already taken on a couple of sides of a decent standard in Rapid Vienna and Slavia Prague.

By the time they have taken on Irish opposition tomorrow in the shape of Shamrock Rovers, they should be in pretty good fettle for the Linfield ties.

Despite all the baggage that comes with this fixture and the nonsense away from the field, I think this is the ideal tie for Celtic to kick off their Champions League campaign.

There are no issues in terms of travelling, the climate is obviously the same as you would experience in Glasgow and the opposition are hardly an unknown quantity.

When you look at how David Healy’s side struggled somewhat to get past La Fiorita from San Marino too, then I can’t see them providing too many problems for this Celtic side. Although as Tuesday night showed, shocks do happen.

Celtic will be going into this campaign with a real focus, and they will be looking to do it for themselves first and foremost.

It is such a hugely important part of their season, and it would be such a huge let-down not to have those massive European nights back at Celtic Park this season after the taster we all got last year.

So, the stakes are high, and delivering Champions League football for themselves and the Celtic supporters will be the primary thing that is driving the players on.

But Brendan Rodgers has spoken in the past of how he feels a responsibility to the Scottish game to promote it and to represent it in the best possible way, and Celtic storming through these ties to the group stages of the Champions League would not only be a real triumph for the club itself, but a huge fillip for the game in this country.

Heaven knows, after Tuesday night, we could be doing with it.