Celtic travel to Almaty to face Kairat in a winner-takes-all Champions League qualifier after a 3-0 domestic win over Livingston. The team showed a decent second-half display but a stodgy, unfamiliar first half mirrored the goalless first leg in Kazakhstan and drew fan grumbles. Brendan Rodgers signalled dissatisfaction with summer recruitment and selected a rotated side with several key players rested for the upcoming trip. The defensive line, midfield trio and front three featured new combinations that lacked tempo early on, while wide players often drifted inside into congested areas. A long flight and heat elevate the challenge.
Image source, SNS Celtic are about to set off to Kazakhstan on the most important trip of their season. They do so on the back of three goals, three points and a decent-enough display, from a much-changed team against Livingston, which keeps up the Scottish champions' perfect domestic start. Amid all that at Celtic Park on Saturday, there was some of the stodginess that characterised the drab goalless first leg against the Kazakhs and more grumbling from the fans.
And there were more gentle reminders from Brendan Rodgers afterwards that he is not entirely thrilled by the club's recruitment work this summer. The Celtic manager know his side will have to be near-flawless after a nine-hour flight across several time zones to the heat of Almaty, where they'll go head to head with Kairat on Tuesday in a 40m, winner-takes-all Champions League shoot-out. The are they ready to take up a seat at European football's top table again this season?
Livingston adopted a similar approach to the one Kairat used to frustrate Celtic, who were far from their fluent best in an unconvincing first half but were much improved after the break. Given that the defensive line, midfield trio and front three had either rarely or never played in those combinations before, it's perhaps unsurprising there was a little unfamiliarity and lack of tempo to much of the first half.
The strength of the Celtic bench speaks to the gamble Rodgers took with Tuesday in mind. Callum McGregor, Kieran Tierney, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and James Forrest all sat on the bench, with Hayato Inamura given a debut at left-back and Shin Yamada his first Celtic start up front. But what Celtic lacked glaringly until half-time was some real quality.
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