Brendan Rodgers says he is proud of his Celtic side after they demolished FC Astana 5-0 at Celtic Park in the first leg of their Champions League playoff round tie.

A tight contest had been predicted at the beginning of the night, but Celtic made a mockery of suggestions the Kazakh outfit might make life tough in their bid to reach the group stage.




Celtic went ahead in the 32nd minute after a run and chip from Tom Rogic was deflected into the Astana net by Evgeni Postnikov.

Scott Sinclair then put Celtic in the driving seat by scoring in the 42nd minute as the Bhoys went in 2-0 up at the break.

 


He then added a second on the hour mark before James Forrest got on the scoresheet with eleven minutes left.

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And Celtic's fifth came after Leigh Griffiths saw his shot take a deflection off Igor Shitov.

The Bhoys now look all but into the Champions League group stage draw and Rodgers was delighted with what he saw.

"It's a great demonstration of the work that the players have made over the past season – the maturity, the belief in a shape and their understanding of the game", he told his post-match press conference.

"We scored five goals and we missed one or two chances.

"To do this against a team that a couple of years ago was drawing with Atletico Madrid and Benfica, I'm very proud of the team."

The Northern Irishman also dubbed the display a complete performance, but emphasised there is still work to do in the second leg.

"Every game in this qualification is a pressure game. The pleasing aspect is how the players coped with that – their calmness in possession, how we circulated the ball and how we opened up the spaces and tired Astana out.

"They normally don’t press. Once we found our angles we could play through them that wee bit better.

"Some of our play was outstanding. It was very complete. We now need to get the job done in the second game", Rodgers added.