SCOTT BROWN, wisely, tends not to disagree in public with Neil Lennon.
On the eve of this game, however, he is willing to deviate slightly from those house rules. While the Celtic manager has indicated he would like his side to score a couple of goals in Astana tonight, the captain would be content to record one away goal.
Brown does not wish this to be perceived as hinting at complacency and acknowledges taking anything for granted is to invite trouble, especially when the opposition is an unknown quantity. Reflecting on Lennon's desire, Brown said: "You need to be ambitious. In an ideal world, we'll return home with a two or three goal lead, but, scoring once would be a great result for us.
"We've seen a lot of them on DVD and they defend really well as a team. They like hitting teams on the counter so, hopefully, we can stand up to that. Elfsborg were similar, and it's hard to break down a team that sits in, but we got through with a clean sheet in Sweden, so that's an example to follow."
For the third time this season, Celtic will have to adapt to playing on an artificial surface. While the plastic caused them more problems than Elfsborg did in Boras, Brown insisted they have begun to find their feet on such pitches. "It's a lot harder and miles different from real grass," is his assessment. "You can't slide tackle, it's all about timing your passing perfectly; if you're just a couple of yards out on either side the ball ends up miles away from the target. You also need to be careful of over-stretching. It's hard for us, but we managed to deal with it in Sweden and also in Belfast."
For a player who has been beset by hip and groin problems, an artificial surface bring sits own obvious dangers. "It just takes its toll on everyone,"said Brown. "All your joints, knees, ankles, feel it. Twisting and turning on this surface isn't great. It's not what any of us want to do, but, that's what we're faced with if we want to get through to the next round."
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