Celtic supporters would have been smiling ear-to-ear after the draw for the Champions League playoff was made. FC Astana represented one of the easier ties available in this round and the Scottish champions will fancy their chances of progressing to the tournament’s group stage.
Celtic have been impressive in their opening games in their league and look like a side that are building a dynasty. FC Astana are no lightweights, but they’re not exactly regualrs at this stage of the competition either.
It promises to be a good match, but The Bhoys will be disappointed if they don’t overcome their Khazakstani counterparts.
Celtic’s form
This is a Celtic team that really don’t lose many games. They started their league season with an overwhelming victory over Kilmarnock and built on that with a hard-fought win over Partrick Thistle.
They managed to win last year’s league by an incredible amount of points and also showed strong displays in Europe. Heavyweights such as Manchester City and Barcelona struggled against them in the group stages and Celtic will be hoping they can put in an even stronger display this year.
FC Astana form
FC Astana surprised European football in the last stage of this competition, by comfortably overcoming Legia Warsaw. They were 3-1 ahead from their first-leg encounter and managed to hold Legia off in the return leg in Poland.
Going into that round, they were massive underdogs against their Polish counterparts. However, they showed amazing creativity going forward and great organization at the back to control the game and push past their opposition.
News
Celtic have been knee-deep in a quest to gget Patrick Roberts back at the club. The Manchester City players is a talent, but has gained the interest of several top-flight clubs in England. Thus, he may not want to go back to Scotland as the Premier League could be seen as more of a lucrative challenge.
Meanwhile, Astana have been playing some top-notch football in their domestic league, winning their last game by three goals to none. They haven’t been massively active in the transfer market, so will have to rely on most of the players who have gotten them to this stage.
Betting tips
It’s hard to overlook Celtic in the betting stakes. They are a top-notch side that have been consistently performing over a number of seasons and were unlucky not to get out of a very difficult group last season.
On the other hand, Scottish clubs have shown that they often overlook challengers in European football. Just look at Rangers, who lost to a part-time Luxemburg side in the qualifying rounds of this year’s Europa League.
Nonetheless, we are fairly positive that Celtic are a step or ten ahead of their Glasgow rivals. Hence, this is why we are backing them to win the opening encounter with ease.
They are priced at 2/5 to get the job done and we will be using Ladbrokes to put this bet on. Scott Sinclair is 4/1 with Betway to get the opening goal and we can see him ruling the roost and scoring it. His European form this season has been excellent and we can certainly see him leaving off where he started against Linfield and Rosenborg.