Celtic are looking to book their place back in the Champions League group stages and they once again need to overcome Kazakhstan champions Astana.

The Bhoys beat them at the same stage last season in a tense two-legged affair and they will need a repeat of that to progress again.

“It’s going to be a tough game for us,” said Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers.

“The first game is important. At home, the atmosphere has been absolutely incredible in the Champions League games in particular so we’ll need that.

“We’ll see if we can get a positive result to take over there the following week.”

Elsewhere, Napoli host French underdogs Nice, Sevilla travel to Istanbul to take on Basaksehir, Israeli champions Hapoel Beer-Sheva take on Maribor whilst Greek giants Olympiakos entertain Croatian champions HNK Rijeka.

See below for a run-down on the game, including predictions from former England, Crystal Palace and Tottenham midfielder and GamblingTimes.com columnist Andy Gray and our own Football Insider Graeme Bailey  together with everything you need to know from the bookies – with BoyleSports’s Leon Blanche.

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Celtic 19:45 Astana
16th August 2017

Celtic Park

1st leg

TEAM NEWS: Celtic are boosted by return of Leigh Griffiths but Moussa Dembele remains out. Erik Sviatchenko, Dedryck Boyata and Eboue Kouassi are sidelined. Astana are without Dorde Despotovic due to injury, while Marin Anicic is a doubt.
KEY FACT: Astana made group stage debut in 2015/16
MATCH ODDS: Celtic 2/5 Draw 10/3 Astana 7/1
ANDY SAYS:  I can see Celtic doing well here and securing a decent first-leg win – 3-1
GRAEME SAYS: This won’t be easy for Celtic at all, but they should have too much for Astana on home soil – 2-1
SILKY SAYS:  I like what Brendan Rodgers has done at Celtic and I think they will win this easily – 3-0
BOYLE SPORT PICK: Draw HT Celtic FT @3/1
FOOTBALLIndex – One to follow: Moussa Dembele at under £2 still looks a very good buy.