Celtic’s Champions League Play Off against Astana will be refereed by a very familiar face in Pavel Kralovec.
The Czech whistler is no stranger to these type of fixtures having taken charge of the hoops Play Off matches away to Shakhtar Karagandy and Maribor in recent seasons.
Although far from welcome even a repeat of the 2-0 defeat in Karagandy won’t be too upsetting with Brendan Rodgers’ side leading 5-0 from the first leg.
It does seem unusual that UEFA have appointed the same referee for a Play Off tie involving Celtic playing the champions of Kazakhstan even though Kralovec is vastly experienced having been in charge of three Champions League group stage matches in each of the last two seasons.
Celtic flew out yesterday for the match and despite a five hour time difference will stay on UK time throughout the trip.
The match will kick off at 4.30pm UK time meaning that Rodgers’ squad will be back in Glasgow in the early hours of Wednesday ahead of their top of the table clash against St Johnstone.
