Stanimir Stoilov, the Astana manager, last night conceded the Kazakhstani champions have no chance of coming back from the five goal defeat they suffered to Celtic in the first leg of the Champions League play-off.
The Bulgarian coach had backed his side to repeat the success they enjoyed in Europe’s premier club competition two years ago, when they qualified for the group stages for the first time in their history, before the game at Parkhead.
However, after seeing his outclassed charges slump to a heavy loss in Glasgow he now just wants them to avoid another humiliation in the second leg in the 30,000 capacity Astana Arena next Tuesday evening.
“In the next game we will try not to lose,” he said. “If we win it will be a very good result for us. At home we have a great support from our fans. Of course, our players will play better at home. Our long-term goal would be to play the same level at home and away.
“I would like to congratulate Celtic on the win. Several individual mistakes cost us. Celtic played high class football. Every time they shot there was a goal. We started quite nicely, but after several small individual mistakes we got punished. In the second half we weren't in the game. We need to work on our play if we want to play in the Champions League in the future.
"There is a big difference between our championship and the Champions League. I still think my players need to do an enormous amount of work. The result was quite tough for us. If you want to play in the Champions League you need to increase the level of the team and the level of teams in the championship."
Stoilov was unhappy the referee had allowed play to continue after both Tom Rogic of Celtic and Yuri Logvinenko of Astana had suffered head injuries in the build-up to the third goal of the evening in the second half.
"If I were a referee I would stop the game," he said. "First of all, we need to think about the health and condition of players. We should have stopped the game."
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