Brendan Rodgers believes Kairat Almaty will see a different Celtic side when they meet in the second leg of their Champions League playoff on Tuesday night.
The Scottish champions were far from their best in the goalless first-leg draw at Parkhead on Wednesday night which leaves the return match in Kazakhstan perilous, with a £40m prize at stake for the winners.
Rodgers made eight changes for the visit of Livingston in the Scottish Premiership and a second-half double from winger Benjamin Nygren and a strike by substitute Johnny Kenny left Celtic with nine points from nine and top of the table.
The table looks good from a Celtic point of view but there is continued discontent in the stands. In the 13th minute of a goalless first half against Livi, the ultras-style fans group Green Brigade launched into the first of several “sack the board” chants and held up banners which read “zero ambition”, “neglect team”, “rinse fans” and “basic board”, albeit there seemed little vocal backing from the rest of the ground.
Rodgers, who is hoping to add to his squad in the coming days, is confident Kairat will see a better version of Celtic at the second time of asking. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” said Rodgers, who is “not sure” if defender Auston Trusty (foot) will make the trip to Kairat and “will wait and see” if striker Adam Idah (knee) will be involved.
“I’ve had games, like I said before, that went for us. And some that haven’t. But it’s winner takes all now. And everything is there for us to do it.
“They’re a good side, well-organised, and it’s always tough in European football to go away. But we know we need the result. And we’re going to give absolutely everything to get the result and be at the top table of European football.”
Rodgers was comfortable making so many changes, with a debut for the 23-year-old Japanese left-back Hayato Inamura, while the 18-year-old Colby Donovan came on for Anthony Ralston to make his debut in the 79th minute.
He said: “I don’t tend to [see it as a risk]. I think that if you are at Celtic you’ve got to be good enough to play, especially at home and when you want to dominate the game. So I was pleased for those guys that came in.
“Young Inamura, he can play in games with dominance when you have 75-80 per cent and can conserve it. So he did well. I thought Dane Murray was excellent until he tired in the last 15 minutes. But I thought he was excellent, him and [Liam] Scales, he steadied it.
“I really like Colby, I think he’s got the personality to play for Celtic. He’s got the hunger, he’s a good size, serves the ball well, you see straight away when he comes in, he’s not timid, he’s aggressive. It’s about balancing up whether he goes out on loan or whether they keep him here and give him some minutes. That’s what we’ll decide.
“But I really like him and I think longer-term he’s going to be a fantastic player for the squad here.”
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Asked about reports claiming there was a Celtic delegation in Belgium to close a deal for the Royal Antwerp forward Michel-Ange Balikwisha, Rodgers said: “Well, I think the delegation were all at this game. I don’t know who else would talk contract talks.
“But there’s a number of players that we’ve been at for a number of months. So we’ll see over the next 48 hours what that looks like.”
The Livingston manager David Martindale acknowledged the strength in depth at Celtic.
He said: “You are at Celtic for a reason. You look at Anthony Ralston. He been playing with Scotland and he’s going to be playing Champions League football next week, playing Champions League football most years. I think it’s quite easy to say that they’ve made a lot of changes, but the changes are still really, really strong and if you could have taken three players out of the starting line-up, they’d probably have been Daizen Maeda, James Forrest, Callum McGregor.
“And then I turned around, I can’t remember if it was 1-0 or 2-0, and I see all three warming up to come on. So it’s a big club, elite-level football and I think anyone who steps on that path for Celtic is more than capable of playing for Celtic.”
