The Hoops looked to be in a rush to secure the win they needed to ensure their place in the play-offs, as they raced into a 3-0 lead with only 19 minutes on the clock.
They opened the scoring after six minutes when Kieran Tierney’s low cross from the byline was turned home at the near post by the in-form Benjamin Nygren for his 12th goal of the season.
Celtic only had to wait another four minutes to double their advantage, and it was something of a gift as their former goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas’ pass was intercepted by Nygren, and his low cross was turned into the net by defender Nick Viergever.
The home side’s perfect start was capped off when Arne Engels converted from the penalty spot after referee Mohammad El-Amara somewhat harshly adjudged that Dani de Wit had handled the ball from Auston Trusty’s header.
After a desperately poor start, FC Utrecht finished the half strongly as De Wit atoned by finding the net from just outside the area with HT approaching, before Kasper Schmeichel had to react sharply to prevent Niklas Vesterlund’s close-range goalbound header from halving the deficit.
The second half took a while to spark into life, but the Cathedral Citizens looked to have made things very interesting just after the hour mark when a ball upfield found Adrian Blake, whose right-footed effort from almost 30 yards found the bottom right-hand corner of the net to reduce the deficit to one.
However, just four minutes later, the hosts restored their two-goal advantage when Engels’ corner was headed home by Trusty to round off an ultimately successful evening for the Hoops.
The result means Celtic have now won their last three European games against Dutch opposition, and although they will be unseeded for the knockout round play-offs, they will nonetheless be happy to have advanced in what has been a challenging campaign to date.
Utrecht end the league phase with seven defeats from their eight outings, and are now winless in their last 11 away major European matches as their wait for a first-ever appearance in the knockout rounds of a European competition goes on.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Benjamin Nygren (Celtic)