CELTIC will be up against FC Astana in the play-off round of the Champions League for the right to play in this year’s Champions League Group stages.
Celtic played Astana last year, beating them 2-1 at Celtic Park and drawing 1-1 away. Celtic will play the first leg at home.
The first leg will be played on 15/16 August with the return leg the following week.
Thoughts on the draw?
Could have been worse, could have been better. The distance is a factor , as is iirc the heat and they may be well into their season . But while I’ve no idea how they may have changed since last time , I believe we have improved. I’d expect us to be favourites but I feel we need to finish this tie at home
Synthetic surface
Would have prefered first leg away but if we play as we can then should do enough at home to go thru HH
Pump thum Celtic moan the bhoys ?
Think no matter who we drew it would have been difficult .positive point is that Brendan will have noted how they set up as they still have same coach and will be better prepared than last year for this tie.
Ideally I would have liked Slavia Prague however despite the travelling issue we can’t complain. It could have been awkward in my view had we drawn Rejika the Croatian Champions as they knocked out Salzburg.
Think this is a good draw for us. Travel should not really be an issue as we have done it before but would like to see us scoring two or three at CP to ease the nerves of going over there. HH