Three years ago, Celtic performed heroics to defeat Kazakh champions, and relative unknowns, Shakhter Karagandy to qualify for the Champions League.
Now, they return to the Astana Arena (scene of their infamous 2-0 defeat three years ago) facing an altogether different and more predatory beast.
Kazakh football is growing. With vast new riches and a growing talent pool, FC Astana are the product of a nation finding its footballing feet – and Celtic will find this out the hard way.
Unlike Karagandy, FC Astana already have European experience having qualified for the Champions League group stages last season, losing just twice and remaining undefeated at home in a group containing finalists Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray and Benfica. Not to mention the 35C heat, plastic pitch and Celtic’s poor European away record, Brendan Rodgers’ team will need to be at their best to get a result against a resilient side.
Not helping the matter is Celtic’s defensive issues with Erik Sviatchenko joining Jozo Simunovic, Dedryck Boyata and Kristoffer Ajer on the injury list. This means perennial bomb scare Efe Ambrose could be set start alongside inexperienced Eoghan O’Connell – something Astana will surely look to exploit.
The Kazakh champions are already well into their domestic campaign, and it’s not surprising to hear that they are currently on course to take their third championship title in a row having lost just twice in their 22 games so far.
Celtic will need to contain versatile attacker Tanat Nusserbayev as well as young Ghanaian, Patrick Twumasi and get past a stubborn defence run by Bosnian international Marin Anicic. Celtic will have a full complement of forward options to choose from with only Stefan Johansen failing to travel with the Glasgow side due to “personal reasons”.
Brendan Rodgers, who has praised young O’Connell and Ambrose in the press this week, believes his side will get the job done, no matter of the personnel he has available to him. He said: ” I have got no qualms about who I put into the game. Our strength will always be the team rather than individuals. The team we put out will hopefully get the result.”
He also played down Celtic’s expectations after FC Astana coach, Stanimir Stoilov, called them “favourites”.
He said: “They are favourites because they have big history at the club. They have been champions of Scotland many times and they have very many traditions.
“Tomorrow is going to be a very hard game for us. We are going to play a defensive game. We are preparing very well, but we have problems. We will try to do our best.”
Celtic will look to improve from their humbling 1-0 defeat to Lincoln Red Imps last time they headed out on the road in Europe, but after a ring of decent performances, Celtic fans will feel slightly better as they face a difficult task to get to the play-offs for the fourth year running.
Kick-off is 15:00 GMT.
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