No Kolo Toure but Celtic and Brendan Rodgers have a point to make in Astana

Celtic supporters shouldn't underestimate the task awaiting their team in Astana

Happily, few Celtic fans who know the least about football now expect games against teams from unfashionable football nations, like Kazakhstan, to be a formality.

While the tabloid press will make crude caricatures about Borat and, no doubt, revel in describing the entire country as a backwater, a reality check awaits anyone who underestimates Astana.

Going through: Astana against Zalgiris in the last round

The signing of Kolo Toure is impressive given the fact that, despite being 35 years old, he was playing in the Europa League final for Liverpool, just over two months ago.

He will surely help the others in our most under-staffed position. However, Toure's arrival comes too late for the first leg and there must be question marks over whether he will be ready next week.

It must worry Brendan Rodgers that he appears to have to choose between starting 20-year-old Eoghan O'Connell in Astana or even playing a back three in a vital European qualifier.

Up front, meanwhile, Leigh Griffiths looks to be in good form already, Moussa Dembélé looks as if a little extra sharpness in front of goal will see him start scoring soon and Nadir Çiftçi probably won't.

So much for Celtic's much-discussed weaknesses. More pertinent is that Astana qualified for the Champions League last season, remaining unbeaten at home, with draws against finalists Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Galatasaray.

In fact, they went through the entire competition (including qualifiers), last season, without losing a home match and took the scalp of Maribor along the way. Domestically and in European competition, they have lost just one match since the beginning of March and top their domestic league by seven points with a game in hand over their nearest rivals.

All that adds up to a major challenge, even without their captain Tanat Nusserbayev and suggests in the circumstances that anything better than a 0-0 draw would be an exceptional result.

It is likely to set the pulses racing, more in terms of tension than in attacking football, though Brendan will presumably expect his players to keep pressing and playing to a high intensity.

But on this occasion a boring match with no goals would set up a Celtic Park return where, hopefully, the crowd could carry the team to victory.

Nail-bitten fingers are crossed.