Celtic’s Champions League play-off tie away to Shakhter Karagandy will have a 4pm kick-off, Celtic Park time. As a play-off the match is controlled centrally by UEFA and will be screened live on ITV4 and probably STV as well. Sky Sports will show the return leg at Celtic Park live. With a four hour time difference between Scotland and Kazakhstan the away match will kick-off at 8pm locally in the national stadium in Astana, over 200 kilometres from Shakhter’s home stadium in Karagandy. The clash with Celtic has captured the imagination of the Kazakhstan footballing public who are assured of European football until Christmas for the first time ever thanks to Shakhter’s run this season. Like Celtic Shakhter have won their domestic title two years running with coach Viktor Kumykov hoping that they complete their reign as champions by booking a place in the group stage of the Champions League. “My work with Shakhter is the high point of my career,” Kumykov said. “Twice we have been crowned champions and now we have qualified for the Champions League play-offs. These are my best days!” In the third qualifying round Shakhter saw their 3-0 first leg lead over FS Skënderbeu of Albania wiped out after just 29 minutes of the return leg. Despite that they fought back to score before half time through Sergei Khizhnichenko in the 38th minute with Maksat Bayzhanov’s strike midway through the second half settling the tie. Shakhtar had no match at the weekend but are away to second placed Astana, who are six points ahead of them in second place in the championship, on Friday at the same venue where they’ll face Celtic. CUTCH
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 10:33:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015