Kairat

Champions League play-off first leg: Celtic v Kairat

The place: Celtic Park, Glasgow When: Wednesday 20 August Kick-off: 20:00 BST

Protection: Hearken to Sportsound commentary on BBC Sounds and observe dwell on the BBC Sport web site & app

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FC Kairat gamers started their lengthy journey to Glasgow with a ringing sensation of their ears.

A couple of days after scraping previous Slovakia’s Slovan Bratislava to arrange a Champions League play-off towards Celtic, they tossed away a 2-0 lead towards Yelimay, shedding 3-2 and with it their place on the prime of the Kazakhstan Premier League.

It was their first house defeat in eight video games and that ringing was introduced on by the phrases of head coach Rafael Urakhtin, who was livid at such a capitulation with simply two months left of the Kazakh season.

“It was a disappointing defeat for us,” he lamented. “I imagine {that a} crew preventing for the championship has no proper to make such errors. We made infantile errors.

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“We have now no time to grieve, we fly to Scotland for the following match.”

A lot to ponder, then, for the Kairat squad as they made their 3,500-mile journey west from Almaty, which lies mere hours from the Chinese language border.

It has already been a reasonably arduous journey on the pitch for the reigning champions of a rustic that Celtic have gotten to know properly during the last decade or so.

Kairat overcame Slovenians Olimpija earlier than coming from two targets down on the halfway level of the tie within the second qualifying spherical towards Finnish facet KuPS.

Then got here the drama in Bratislava, as they emerged through a shoot-out amidst a raucous environment within the Slovakian capital after going behind within the first half.

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Teenager Satpaev is important risk

Satpaev (left) in motion for Kazakhstan towards Wales [Getty Images]

In 2002, Uefa granted a request from the Kazakh FA to participate in European competitors regardless of the most important landlocked nation on the planet sitting in mid-Asia.

Celtic have visited 3 times beforehand, together with twice at this stage of Champions League qualifying, with memorable match-ups towards Shakhter Karagandy and Astana.

Kairat have had Scottish expertise themselves, having knocked Aberdeen out of the Europa League a decade in the past.

Returning to the qualifying match of their bid to get again to Europe’s prime desk isn’t superb for Scotland’s champions towards the backdrop of a fading coefficient, however Brendan Rodgers’ males might be massive favourites.

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Nonetheless, the warnings are there that Kairat could also be no pushovers. The most important hazard to Celtic’s ambitions comes within the form of a 17-year-old.

Dastan Satpaev has a big-money switch to Chelsea to sit up for however is just too younger to make that transfer this yr as per Fifa guidelines.

He celebrated his seventeenth in Bratislava and can head to west London as quickly as he turns 18 subsequent August.

Satpaev has 22 purpose involvements for Kairat this season, scoring 13 of them himself, together with three within the qualifiers. And regardless of his 5ft 5in body, has an enormous future on his palms while already a full worldwide.

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Belarus worldwide Valeriy Gromyko is one other necessary participant and is prone to be concerned towards Scotland within the upcoming World Cup qualifier in Hungary.

This isn’t a fixture Celtic might be intimidated by, other than the size of journey they may undertake for subsequent week’s return. Though the final time Callum McGregor and James Forrest have been in Kazakhstan, it was for a Scotland crew on the receiving finish of a 3-0 humbling in 2019.

Symbolically, the sight of Astana taking part in within the group stage of the Champions League in 2015 was large for Kazakh soccer, with many feeling it justified Uefa’s choice to grant them entry.

However, it stays the one time a membership from the nation has participated within the match. Kairat are determined to change into the second.