Celtic maintained redoubtable form to win a 39th Scottish league championship but found its ambitions in Europe diminished by a lightweight squad.

　　Domestically, success flowed for a Celtic side hell-bent on avenging the loss of the league crown to Rangers on goal difference on the final day of last season.

　　Sunday's 1-0 win at Kilmarnock that clinched a third crown in four years leaves Celtic six games short of becoming the first Scottish side to complete a league season unbeaten since Rangers in 1898/99. Celtic also set a British record of 25 successive wins before the sequence was broken with a 1-1 draw against Motherwell on March 14.

　　But while Martin O'Neill's men should do the double by beating Dunfermline Athletic or Inverness Caley Thistle in next month's Scottish Cup final, Europe caused consternation.

　　The Bhoys were four minutes from a Champions League last-16 place in December but conceded a penalty against Olympique Lyon to lose 3-2 and drop into the UEFA Cup.

　　Celtic entered the lesser competition with high expectations after losing last year's final 2-3 to FC Porto but injuries and suspensions to John Hartson, Chris Sutton, Alan Thompson and John Kennedy killed it off.

　　Last Wednesday's 0-2 quarterfinal defeat at Villarreal put the team out of the UEFA Cup 3-1 on aggregate. It was its 15th game in 52 days and came less than three days after its weary players had beaten Livingston 3-1 to secure a Scottish Cup final berth.

　　"The squad is not strong enough and that has shown," midfielder Neil Lennon said in the aftermath of the UEFA Cup exit. Celtic will be seeded in the Champions League next season as a reward for the enormous strides made under O'Neill, whose side has played 47 European ties since he arrived from Leicester City four years ago.

　　In the Champions League, it beat Lyon and Anderlecht at home and drew with Bayern Munich. In the UEFA Cup, it ousted Barcelona 1-0 on aggregate after a first-leg home win in the fourth round.

　　Reaching the UEFA Cup last eight in successive seasons is also admirable when one considers Celtic had been bundled out of Europe before Christmas over the 23 previous years.

　　But while it retains a 77-match unbeaten home record in all competitions, tellingly it failed to win any of its last six away matches in Europe.

　　Media reports have linked the much-coveted O'Neill with Chelsea, Liverpool and even England over the past few months and a lack of financial support may yet tempt him away from the club he supported as a boy.

　　Swedish striker Henrik Larsson - Celtic's third-top scorer of all time with more than 230 goals - will leave a massive hole when he ends his seven-year tenure with the team after the Scottish Cup final on May 22.

　　(Reuters)