THE Green Brigade marked their return to Celtic Park following a two-match suspension by referencing UFC superstar Conor McGregor. "We're not here to take part, we're here to take over," their banner read, incorporating one of the Irishman's typically understated lines.

With Europe's big guns like Paris St Germain splashing obscene amounts of cash on the likes of Neymar, for now the prospect of Celtic defeating all comers to lift this trophy in Kyiv in May remains only marginally less fanciful than that of a man with little or no boxing pedigree defeating one of the most illustrious fighters in the modern era under Queensbury Rules. But you have to be in it to win it. And the Parkhead side definitely will be, after racking up a five-goal first leg lead against Astana which has surely inflicted a knockout blow to their Kazakh rivals even by the halfway stage of this tie.

This was the third time in the last five seasons where Celtic had squared off opposition from the fictional home of Borat, and once again they found that meeting a side from the former Soviet Republic a lucky charm in the bid to unlock £25m in Champions League cash which might mean little to big rollers like PSG but means the world to them.

From Rangers v Levski Sofia right through to the club's recent misadventures against Maribor and Malmo, nights like these are meant to be fraught, nerve-shredding encounters but this was the exception which proved the rule. It also proved how far Celtic have come in 12 months. They will be comfortably good enough to see out the second leg 4,000 miles away and Scottish football should be thankful because each top flight will get £200,000 as a result and it will bring some proper footballing heavyweights back to the table this season. They have already started spending the cash, in the form of a bumper new contract for Stuart Armstrong, but the midfielder started on the bench here.

With no Jonny Hayes either, the bench was a rather callow, untested group, which only served to emphasise how much strengthening is required when the Parkhead side make to the group stages. In fact, Peter Lawwell can probably get back on the blower to Manchester City about Patrick Roberts project right now,

The Kazakhs, winners of their league championship for the last three seasons, had signalled their intent by keeping hold of danger men Junior Kabananga and Patrick Twumasi, but on a Parkhead playing surface freshly doused by a pre-match downpour, Celtic were determined to make this as much of a mis-match as possible.

Tom Rogic - aska Celtic's magic man - was back in the starting line-up at the expense of Callum McGregor - not Conor - and from the moment he reprised his cup final goal in the lead-up to the opener this match was heading inexorably in Celtic's direction. by That trademark burst down the right saw him outstrip the defence, although his clipped finish was actually heading wide until the luckless Evgeni Postnikov's touch took it in.

The defender's night didn't improve much when he headed Astana's best chance wide shortly afterwards but so few of those heart-stopping moments did Celtic's backline experience that the supporters were entitled to feel short changed by the experience. Instead they could sit back and relax, and watch Celtic carve out openings and put the fear of God into their opponents when they injected pace into their play. Scott Sinclair had missed from close range early on and Leigh Griffiths had been inches out with a leaping header, but a priceless second arrived before half-time, a block tackle on Rogic breaking straight into the path of Scott Sinclair. The Englishman had an eternity to consider the ramifications but his low finish into the bottom corner was a mark of quality.

Seemingly straightforward leads can crumble quickly on nights like these but still Celtic kept the drama and stress to a minimum. The mixed martial arts theme was pertinent, and not just because Scott Brown received a booking for what the Romanian referee interpreted as strong arm tactics on Twumasi.

The only tactic they could devise to stop Rogic's thrusts all night was when Yuro Logvinenko risked his health by running headlong into the Australian. Both men had to leave the fray as a result, Logvinenko receiving a booking into the bargain, but a bigger problem than that was the fact the ball broke to Griffiths, who gave Sinclair the chance of effortlessly notching the night's third goal.

Celtic had the scent of blood now, and Griffiths played in the excellent James Forrest for a cute slide rule finish for number four. Four goals and none from Griffiths was a strange state of affairs and the little attacker would have rectified it by sweeping in number five from substitute Stuart Armstrong's pass, at least until it emerged that his shot had struck Igor Shitov and was given as the second Kazakh own goal on the night.