Mixed emotions for Rodgers and Brown as Celtic advances after 'game of basketball'

Celtic survived a scare against Astana to reach the Champions League group stage, leaving Brendan Rodgers with conflicting feelings.

Published : Aug 23, 2017 00:49 IST

Brendan Rodgers and Scott Brown were relieved and disappointed in equal measure as Celtic progressed to the Champions League group stage despite defeat at Astana.

Celtic had thumped its opponent 5-0 in the opening leg last week but found itself 4-1 down with just over 20 minutes remaining in Kazakhstan as the hosts went in search of the three more goals it needed to complete the most remarkable fightback.

Astana squandered chances to pile further pressure on the visitor, who then scored two late goals on the break to dismiss any lingering doubts and secure an 8-4 aggregate win - the highest-scoring tie in Champions League play-off history.

Celtic - losing a competitive fixture for the first time since it was beaten by Barcelona in November - will now take its place in Thursday's draw for the group phase, leaving Rodgers to analyse an evening of contrasting feelings.

"On the night it's mixed emotions because we didn't defend well enough and our possession at times wasn't good enough either," he told BT Sport.

"We were too loose in our passing and we gave away a poor first goal. I thought we'd get through this [qualifying] campaign without anxiety!

"We were trying to plug gaps, credit to the players, they were on the ropes for 15-20 minutes there. It's disappointing tonight but across the campaign the players have been first class.

"They deserve to qualify and we look forward to the draw."

Captain Brown added: "[We were] not so good coming over here, 4-3 was an exciting game for the neutral but not so much for us.

"It was a game of basketball, that's not like us, we're usually very tight and we were a bit too open today. European football is never going to be easy, to win 5-0 at home shows you what you need to do.

"Coming here is always hard on an astroturf pitch but we're a little bit disappointed with ourselves."

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment