CHRIS Davies, the Celtic assistant manager, has predicted the artificial pitch the Parkhead club’s Champions League qualifier against Astana will be played on in Kazakhstan tomorrow night will suit their natural attacking game.
The Scottish champions suffered one of the most embarrassing defeats in their history in the first leg of the second qualifying round against Lincoln Red Imps on a synthetic surface in Gibraltar a fortnight ago.
Brendan Rodgers’s side lost 1-0 to their semi-professional opponents – many of whom only played part-time – in what was the former Swansea City and Liverpool manager’s first competitive match in charge earlier this month.
The meeting with Astana, who held Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Galatasary to draws at home in the Champions League group stages last season, will be played on plastic grass at the 30,000-capacity Astana Arena.
Celtic lost 2-0 to Shakhter Karagandy when they played there in the first leg of the Champions League play-off when Neil Lennon was manager three years ago.
However, Celtic scout John McGlynn, the former Hearts, Livingston and Raith Rovers manager, watched Astana beat Zalgiris Vilnius 2-1, thanks to a goal in the second minute of injury time, in Kazakhstan in the last round. Davies believes the pitch will actually suit the Scottish champions.
“We are expecting a difficult game,” he said. “They did well in the Champions League last year at home and they got points off some big teams. But the pitch looks quicker than the Red Imps, which could help our game.
“Having said that, they are a physical team with quality so we are going to need to be right on our mettle to get the result.”
Celtic lost 6-5 on penalties to English champions Leicester City in their opening International Champions Cup game at Parkhead on Saturday after they had finished tied 1-1 after 90 minutes.
However, Davies believes the meeting with Claudio Ranieri’s team at the weekend was the perfect preparation for the outing in Asia and is hopeful Rodgers’s side can get a positive result here.
“We had the Leicester game and then focused on the game plan for Astana, doing a lot of work,” he said. “We’re confident we can do a job. We are focusing on the positives and making sure we are going to be prepared physically and tactically. Hopefully we can get a good result.”
Rodgers, who brought in former France Under-20 striker Moussa Dembele at the end of last month, made his second signing as Celtic manager this weekend when he landed Kolo Toure, the one-time Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool centre half, on a one year deal.
Toure, who worked with Rodgers at Anfield, didn’t travel with the Celtic squad to Kazakhstan yesterday as the 35-year-old Ivory Coast internationalist is lacking in match fitness.
But Davies believes the 118-times capped defender will be an important player for Celtic during the 2016/17 campaign as they attempt to win their sixth consecutive Ladbrokes Premiership title and predicted he would be available for selection soon.
“We’re really pleased,” he told the official Celtic website. “We worked with Kolo at Liverpool and he brings two things - he’s a top defender and has real authority with experience. He's an inspirational figure so we're not only getting a good player, we are also getting someone who can inspire players around him and help the team and younger players.
“We're really happy he’s here and it is an important week now for him to build up physically. He played in the Europa League final for Liverpool and had time off but he has been working with a personal trainer, so we'll see how we go.”
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