‘Giant’ Celts now twice as good
ASTANA boss Stanimir Stoilov insists they were blown away by Celtic because they are twice the team they were when the sides last met in the Champions League.
The Scottish champions make the marathon journey to Kazakhstan for the second leg this week with the outcome now a formality after a 5-0 annihilation.
Astana have been hit with a barrage of criticism in their homeland with the country’s most popular sportsman, MMA fighter Kuat Khamitov, even suggesting football should be disbanded because of the shame of the defeat in Glasgow.
But experienced boss Stoilov insists Astana have nothing to be ashamed of because “British giants” Celtic have improved enormously since the last time the sides met last year, where the Hoops sneaked through 3-2 on aggregate.
He said: “Celtic are a far better team than us regarding the strength and quality of their players.
“The Scottish team have become far stronger than they were when we met in 2016.
“They haven’t lost for nine months in the domestic leagues, cups or in Europe.
“That’s a tremendous achievement and gives you an idea of how strong Celtic are and how difficult it was always going to be for us.
“And we were very naive on the night, too.
“When we went 2-0 down, we tried to chase the game which left a lot of gaps. We also seemed to lose every individual battle.
“Celtic are one of the giants of British football, remember.
“You also must look at football in Kazakhstan. We were the only team in the play-off round who don’t have a training centre.
“We don’t even own our own stadium. We are poor relatives at this level.”
However, Stoilov is desperate to at least restore some pride this week.
He stressed: “What happened in Scotland was a tragedy for us, but we will draw strength from it and learn from it.
“Believe me, the players were distraught about the result and are utterly determined to at least compete this week.”