‘FIVE GOALS UP, BUT IT’S NOT OVER YET,’ WARNS BROONY

SKIPPER Scott Brown insists Celtic will not take it easy against Astana in Kazakhstan on Tuesday.

The Hoops go into the Champions League play-off second leg five goals ahead after their rampant success at Parkhead in midweek.

Brendan Rodgers’ men are only 90 crucial minutes away from competing in the £30million group stages of the European elite for a second successive season.

But Brown said: “We won’t think for a minute that it is over. We aren’t there yet.

“It would be nice to go over there and get another win and the result on Wednesday just takes a wee bit of pressure of us.

“We all know how nervous these nights can be, but given the cushion we’ve got and the fact we didn’t concede, then I think we will be relatively assured.

“We are only halfway there and it is a case of just maintaining a professional approach.

“We want to be in the Champions League. It’s where we feel we belong and we want to be in there mixing it with the best teams in Europe.

“So far we have gone about our business the right way.”

The Hoops midfielder added: “The win over Astana was definitely one of the classiest performance I’ve been part of at this level.

“They came after us in the opening stages and put us under a wee bit of pressure, but you saw how composed we were and how we just kept looking to start an attack.

“European football is about keeping the ball and creating chances and on that front we need to feel pretty pleased with ourselves.

“We went out and did our job, did our talking out there on the park and now we can go over there next week feeling confident.”

Celtic have yet to concede a goal in Europe this season with a 6-0 aggregate win over Linfield and a 1-0 victory over Rosenborg after three hours of football.

Craig Gordon, after his midweek shut-out, will be hoping to for another clean sheet in Kazakhstan.

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