Martin O’Neill’s team needed a victory to progress and started strong with a three-goal lead, thanks to a Benjamin Nygren double and Arne Engels penalty.
Despite Utrecht’s attempts at a comeback, reducing Celtic‘s lead to 3-2, Auston Trusty‘s header from an Engels delivery secured the points.
The result has off-field benefits too with the play-off qualification and win generating prize money for the club.
Victory alone provided €450,000, while qualification for the play-off stage earned an additional €300,000.
This means Celtic secured earnings of €750,000 (£650,000) for this fixture alone.
Further prizes culminate in a total of €6.26m (£5.43m) earned by the club so far this season from their Europa League campaign, a figure including the €4.31m prize for competing in the league phase of the competition.
The club also banked €1.2m from their successful record in their first five games of the group stage, which included two wins and two draws.
It’s not only the potential of further play-off stage victories that holds financial promise.
Should Celtic advance to the last-16 stage, they will be rewarded with an additional €1.75m prize money.
They will discover their opponents for the play-off in the draw tomorrow.
As it stands, Celtic’s solid performance in Europe this campaign has not only underlined their ambition and ability on the pitch but has proved a significant financial boost for the club, rewarding their successful results with substantial prize money.