Astana 4 Celtic 3 (agg 4-8)

DO you think if Celtic ever enjoyed a ten-goal lead going into the second-leg of a Champions league play-off the return would lack the real risk of their supporters needing a nervous system transplant?

Probably not. Because even with 45 minutes of this tie to go, and Celtic 1-1 on the night and leading 6-1 on aggregate, they somehow contrived to make things a thousand times more fraught than it should have been.

In the end, Astana did finish five goals behind so Brendan Rodgers’s men were never in any real danger of going out. It just didn’t feel like that when the Kazaks scored twice within minutes of the second-half starting and then made it 4-1. All bets then were off.

Is there such a thing as an uncomfortable, comfortable win over two-legs?

Read more: Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: This was our annual Be'er Sheva moment but the players were magnificent

Astana head coach, Stanimir Stoilov, gave his team a whole one per cent of a chance of getting through the tie. To their credit, his players did not play as if the cause was lost. It did make you wonder what happened to them last week.

Celtic, however, are through. When their name is drawn out of the hat on Thursday, nobody will care this game was more difficult than it should have been. They have reached the group stage for a second successive year. Don’t allow the naysayers to fool you. For any Scottish team, this is an outstanding achievement.

And one thing you most certainly could take away from Celtic’s first defeat in 43 matches. They will be anything but dull.

There was a surprise beforehand when there was no sign of Jozo Simunovic in the team, the squad’s one fit senior central defender wasn’t even on the bench, which meant a central back pairing of Nir Bitton and Kristoffer Ajer.

With such a big a cushion, it could be argued that forcing the Croat, who has suffered with injuries, to play on the artificial surface was a bigger risk. But we won’t be seeing his replacements together again.

The impressive Astana Arena wasn’t filled but the locals are a noisy bunch and at least they hadn’t given up. The banner held up asked “Until the last Breath.” For a while it felt possible their demands would be met.

But Celtic were comfortable at the start They got into the Astana box in six minutes with Scott Sinclair showing good skill to get past a couple of defenders, but there were enough yellow jerseys in the post code to stop his progress.

Read more: Celtic go for fair play award as they make things interesting against Astana

Olivier Ntcham got a scolding from Brown for shooting from outside the box instead of keeping possession. Celtic didn’t need to go chasing for goals.

However, they should have scored on the quarter hour. Astana were caught out in midfield which allowed Callum McGregor a run at three defenders. He had Leigh Griffiths to his right but passed from Sinclair on the left, his first touch could have been better and it meant Evgeni Postnikov got back to block what seemed a certain goal.

It was all going well until 26 minutes when Astana got that breakthrough they so craved. It was hard on young Ajer who could hardly be faulted for sticking out a leg to block a speculative shot by Dmitri Shomko which was going wide and instead flew in the helpless Gordon’s net.

Celtic’s reaction was impressive. Sinclair forced his way past three players on a 40-yard run, got right through on Eric who pulled off a fine save. Astana’s goalkeeper was at it again almost immediately, getting down low at his near post to bundle a Forrest shot wide.

And just as the home crown began to rise to the occasion, so did Sinclair on 34 minutes.

Set-up by a McGregor pass, Sinclair got himself into his favourite position, on the left, ball at his right foot and attacking a defender, this time Astana right-back Igor Shitov was the poor sod trying to stop the Englishman who not for the first time bought some space before sending a curling shot into the opposite corner.

And even when Astana did threaten, as they did at the end of the first-half when from a Serikzhan Muzhikov corner, Marin Anicic’s deft header looked a goal all the way, Gordon pulled off a stunning save as he got to the ball under his own crossbar.

That, really, should have been it.

Read more: Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: This was our annual Be'er Sheva moment but the players were magnificent

But the start of the second-half was to prove a nightmare for Celtic. Astana scored three minutes after the break, helped by a rare Brown mistake which cost his side a goal three minutes after the break. He lost possession and then when trying to make up for his error, header the ball into the path of Muzhikov who made no mistake from eight yards with Celtic’s defence all over the place.

Within a minute, things got seriously interesting. Celtic seemed to be in a state of shock when Shomko crossed from the right to Twumasi whose stunned header beat Gordon. Two minutes later, Junior Kabananga put over from inside the six-yard box A sitter.

Let’s put it this way; if this had been at Celtic Park and the home side needed four goals, you just might have fancied them.

Tom Rogic and Anthony Ralston replaced Forrest and Forrest on 56 minutes, Stuart Armstrong arrived eight minutes later when Sinclair was sacrificed. Rodgers went with a 5-4-1.

This was done to settle down the game. Astana scored a fourth in 68 minutes.

Read more: Celtic go for fair play award as they make things interesting against Astana

Within the space of 60 seconds, Griffiths passed up a great chance to kill it when he ballooned a half volley over with the goal at his mercy after being superbly found by Tierney. The ball was quickly played up field, Twumasi took it almost to the touchline and somehow beat Gordon at his near post.

What happened next was just about everything.

Griffiths had a free-kick saved, the excellent Twumasi was denied another goal by a brilliant Gordon save, and the Celtic goalkeeper was again called into action when he beat away a Muzhikov shot.

And with 15 to go, Twumasi of all people sent a shot over from inside the box when he was totally unmarked. Throughout all of this, Rodgers would have been wondering what had happened to his team.

However, it was to end well. With ten minutes to go, Ntcham ran on to a ball played to the edge of the box and his deflected shot meant there was no way back for Astana. And just to make sure, Griffiths with his right foot found the bottom corner on 90 minutes. What a night!