Celtic have a hectic fixture schedule to negotiate from now until the end of August.
Celtic’s fixtures include tonight’s League Cup tie against Falkirk at Celtic Park which is then followed up by the first-leg of the Champions League play-off tie against Kairat Almaty.
Livingston visit Celtic Park the following Saturday the 23rd of August with the lengthy trip to Kazakhstan up next three days later.
Celtic had the option to postpone the Livingston fixture to help alleviate the pressure of the busy fixture and here, Brendan Rodgers explains the ‘reasons’ why he decided to go ahead with the Scottish Premiership fixture.
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Brendan Rodgers wants to build Celtic’s fitness ahead of Champions League play off
Brendan Rodgers was taking in the pre-match League Cup press conference when he confirmed the reasons why Celtic didn’t postpone the Livingston game before the Champions League tie against Kairat Almaty.
Rodgers told Celtic TV, “Yeah. Yeah, we’ll play the game now. We looked at that and decided that we wanted to play that, for numbers of reasons.
“Obviously getting players up to speed and fitness.
“We’ve got a good squad of players here and if I need to rotate it and change it, I can do.”
The last time Celtic played a team in Kazakhstan
Celtic have played two teams from Kazakhstan in the history of the club but their last visit to the country produced a seven-goal thriller.
Astana stood between Celtic and the Champions League group stage in 2017 and after Brendan Rodgers’ side thumped them 5-0 in the first-leg at Parkhead, this happened:
Astana won 4-3 on the night but the result didn’t matter as Celtic did the damage in the first leg.
With the tie against Kairat less than a week away, Celtic fans would love to see a repeat of the 5-0 thrashing that happened just over eight years ago now.
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