Brendan Rodgers won’t allow travel times, plastic pitches or injury problems to impact on his Champions League plans.
The new Celtic boss finds himself in Asia with an injury racked side attempting to steer the hoops into the group phase of the Champions League.
After back-to-back failures under Ronny Deila bringing back the big time is an essential part of Rodgers remit.
Having paid his salary with a huge spike in ticket sales the Irishman won’t let anything detract from his Champions League ambitions.
“We have to focus on ourselves,” he stated. “We’re another week down line in terms of fitness and impressed by tactical work of the team. The players shaping up well.
“Astana like to cross and have good physicality in the team and can be very direct at times.
“We know their threat, we assessed some of their games from last season in Champions League.”
Despite home advantage and recent experience in the Champions League Astana coach Stanimir Stoilov has claimed that Celtic are favourites.
“Our captain had surgery and he will not play for one month. We will try to do our best,” Stoilov said.
“I know about Celtic. I have enough information. I know the players, I know the coach, I know the history of this club. I know enough about the Scottish champions. Tomorrow we will see what happens.
“To be honest, I know that Celtic play very well and is a very strong team. I know that Celtic is favourites, but we will try as much as we can and we will see what the result is tomorrow.
“They are favourites because they have big history at the club. They become champions of Scotland many times and they have very many trophies.”
