UK Edition
Celtic 5 Astana 0: Champions League group stage beckons as Brendan Rodgers' side run riot
Celtic effectively placed themselves into the draw for the group stage of the Champions League when, after a shaky start, they steamrolled over Astana to with two goals from Scott Sinclair, supplemented by a strike from James Forrest and two own goals. Such ruthlessness endorsed Brendan Rodgers’ belief that his squad had matured greatly over a year under his charge.
Despite the restoration of the Green Brigade to the safe standing area, Celtic Park did not quite resound as it can do on high octane European evenings and the crowd’s hesitancy seemed to extend to their team’s performance for the first half hour of the proceedings.
Certainly, Astana were well marshalled, with the forceful Ivan Maevski shuttling across possible gaps between the Kazakh’s two banks of four, with Junior Karabananga – identified by Rodgers as a man to be watched carefully – as spearhead.
Celtic showed two changes to the team who beat Partick Thistle 1-0 at Firhill last week with Rogic and Griffiths starting. The latter was swiftly prominent with a free kick delivery which was knocked down towards Scott Sinclair inside the box, but he could only scoop his effort wide.
Soon after, Rogic’s persistence released James Forrest for a swirling cross which Griffiths met with an unopposed header which swept past the post. So far, so encouraging, but Celtic’s rhythm began to fragment amongst the congestion around the Astana box. They frequently pushed Griffiths and the three advanced midfield players up against the opposing back four but, unwilling to resort to pitching the ball over the top, the Hoops found gaps almost impossible to identify.
Midway through the half the first grumbles were heard from the frustrated home fans and by the half hour mark a series of careless passes prompted some catcalls and jeers. At which timely moment, Celtic forced the breakthrough they craved.
Pushing up from his full back beat, Mikael Lustig spotted Rogic breaking ahead of him and fed a pass ahead of the Australian as he spurted through a group of four yellow jerseys inside the box to finish with an angled right foot drive that had begun to swirl away from the target when it was diverted across the line by Postnikov’s abortive attempt to clear.
Having been favoured by unforeseen fortune, Celtic moved through the gear shifts and, three minutes before the break, pressed hard on the accelerator when a ricochet from an Astana boot inside the Kazakh half sent Sinclair scampering off to finish with a shot which Aleksandr Mokin reached but could not stop.
With the stadium booming at last, Celtic swept through the second half in imperious form. On the hour mark Rogic and Yuri Logviunenko clashed heads in the air but – although the contest was over for both players – the Romanian referee shrewdly allowed Celtic to play the advantage and Griffiths deftly played Sinclair beyond the Astana back line to shoot his second of the evening past the exposed Mokin.
Having established a comfort zone for next week’s potentially hazardous return in the capital of Kazakhstan, Celtic expanded their advantage to a virtual guarantee of progress when Griffiths turned provider once more, this time to put Forrest free inside the box to prod his finish through the stricken goalkeeper’s legs.
Griffiths’ unselfishness was saluted by the fans and they hailed him ecstatically when he broke clear in the closing moments to apply the coup de grace with a coolly taken fifth goal.