Preview:Celtic vs Kairat - prediction, team news, lineups

Celtic welcome Kazakh champions Kairat to Glasgow on Wednesday night in the first leg of their Champions League playoff tie.

Kairat are seeking to become just the second club from Kazakhstan to qualify for the Champions League, while Celtic are aiming for a fourth straight appearance in the competition proper.

Match preview

With a 7,000-mile round trip on the horizon next week, Brendan Rodgers will hope his Celtic side can get most of the job done in this first leg, before the treacherous trip east.

The Celtic players and staff are facing a near 10-hour one-way flight to reach Almaty next week, the same place where Chelsea faced Astana last season, and took a team full of reserves to the outpost in what is essentially central Asia.

Rodgers’s men have been afforded ample time to prepare for this first leg, after being given the Friday night slot in the Scottish League Cup over the weekend, beating Falkirk 4-1.

Livingston await on Saturday, before the Hoops will trek out to Kazakhstan for Tuesday’s second leg, which could be inconsequential should they build up a healthy enough lead here.

Rangers await in the season’s first Old Firm derby a few days later, so needing as few of their first-team players as possible will be on the mind of Rodgers during this first leg.

Celtic have maintained a 100% record in the early stages of the season, beating Falkirk in the cup after starting with back-to-back victories in the league, and that sets them up nicely for this encounter.

While this is the first meeting between the two clubs, Celtic have faced Kazakh opposition on three separate occasions, needing to win at home in order to overcome underwhelming results out in the far depths of UEFA football.

Shakhter Karagandy gave Celtic a big scare, leading 2-0 from the first leg in 2013, while the Scottish side were unable to win either away leg in back-to-back seasons against Astana in 2016 and 2017, but they still progressed from all three ties.

Kairat are threatening to make a real splash though, so they must not be underestimated, having already won against the odds in all three rounds so far.

After knocking Olimpija Ljubljana and KuPS out, it looked as though last season’s league phase participants Slovan Bratislava would provide too stern of a test for the modest Kazakhs, but they showed incredible determination to win late on in the first leg, and then force penalties in Slovakia on Tuesday, coming out victorious.

Rafael Urazbakhtin’s men had already set a new club record in reaching the third qualifying round, but they have now gone one better, potentially being just 180 minutes away from reaching the league phase, and mixing it with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Kairat are now guaranteed Europa League football at worst in the autumn, which is an upgrade on their only other group stage appearance back in 2021 in the Conference League, when they finished bottom of their section with just two points from six games.

This will be their third playoff in UEFA competition, as Bordeaux beat them on away goals in the Europa League in 2015, but they reached the Conference League by thrashing Fola Esch 7-2 on aggregate in 2021.

Before losing to Bordeaux though, Kairat enjoyed their only previous meeting with a Scottish club, beating Aberdeen 3-2 on aggregate, so the current crop will be dreaming of replicating that sort of result on their return over the next two weeks.

The whirlwind of winning on Tuesday may have distracted them at the weekend though, because Kairat were beaten 3-2 at home by Yelimay Seney despite leading 2-0, allowing Astana to leapfrog them at the top of the standings, midway through their league season.

Celtic form (all competitions):

W W W

Kairat Champions League form:

D W L W W L

Kairat form (all competitions):

W W W W L L

Team News

Rodgers made a few alterations in the win over Falkirk, giving game time to some players who are not first choice, such as Johnny Kenny, who started up front for the first time this season.

Jota remains sidelined with injury, while recent recruit Jahmai Simpson-Pusey is yet to make his debut since arriving on loan from Manchester City.

Benjamin Nygren will expect to return to the side after he was one of the many who was kept in reserve on Friday, especially as he notched a goal and an assist in the 2-0 win at Aberdeen recently.

Kairat made five changes at the weekend from the XI that started in Bratislava last midweek, and it would be no surprise to see Urazbakhtin revert back to that team here.

All eyes will be on Dastan Satpaev, who has already agreed to join Chelsea next year when he turns 18, but the young starlet, who only turned 17 last week, is already the man for the big occasion, converting the injury-time penalty that saw them beat Slovan in the first leg in the previous round.

Satpaev will be joined in attack by the more experienced Jorginho, who has nine goals and nine assists in 29 appearances this season, and scored the winning penalty in the dramatic shootout on Tuesday night.

Celtic possible starting lineup:

Schmeichel; Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Tierney; Engels, McGregor, Hatate; Nygren, Idah, Maeda

Kairat possible starting lineup:

Zarutskiy; Tapalov, Sorokin, Martynovich, Luis Mata; Glazer, Gromyko, Arad; Satpaev, Edmilson Santos, Jorginho

We say: Celtic 4-0 Kairat

Kairat have been the story of qualifying so far across all three competitions, but this may well prove to be a step too far this time against Celtic, who have become regulars in the Champions League.

The Scottish club are familiar with playing as big favourites, so the pressure should not get to them, and Rodgers will be keen to build up a big advantage so he can rest some players in the second leg next week.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.