Rodgers: We’ll go for victory in Astana
BRENDAN Rodgers has targeted a win in Kazakhstan to round to top a phenomenal performance in Glasgow in the first leg.
The Scottish champions blew their expensivelyassembled rivals away with a 5-0 display in front of a full house at Parkhead in this Champions League play-off.
An Evgeni Postnikov own goal after some good work by Tom Rogic and a Scott Sinclair effort put the home team 2-0 up at half-time.
Sinclair added his second on the hour mark and James Forrest and an own goal killed off the outclassed visitors with late strikes.
But Rodgers refused to declare that his side have booked a place in the lucrative group stages of the competition for the second year running and stressed they will be looking to triumph again next week.
The Glasgow club still have to negotiate the second leg in the Astana Arena next Tuesday evening - a venue their opponents have not lost in Europe at in 14 games and three years.
Asked if he accepted the tie was effectively over, Rodgers said: “Not really. The job is to complete. We want to go there and win the game. We don’t have to, but that is what we will try to do. We have to complete the second leg.
“We have had a number of outstanding performances. It was a different game, a different occasion. Every game at this level is a pressure situation. I was pleased with how they coped with that.
“Some of our play and our football was outstanding. It was a brilliant performance, very complete. We now need to get the job done over there for the second game. They showed maturity. We have made a really good start. It is another game where we haven’t conceded.”