Kairat boss suffers nightmare Celtic warm up as players blasted over 'childish' goals in title stumble
Rafael Urakhtin did not like what he saw from his men ahead of the mammoth journey to Glasgow for Champions League clash
Rafael Urakhtin blasted his Kairat Almaty players for conceding 'childish goals' after they suffered an extraordinary collapse ahead of taking on Celtic in the Champions League.
Celtic go head-to-head with the Kazakh dark horses on Wednesday for the £40million jackpot that comes with league phase qualification.
But Kairat's preparation has been disastrous as they blew a two-goal lead at home to Yelimay Semey to lose 3-2.
It's in stark contrast to Brendan Rodgers' men, who blew Falkirk away on Friday night to book their spot in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals.
It was only their third league loss in 20 matches and Urakhtin was far from happy ahead of the mammoth journey to Glasgow.
He said: "We have no time to grieve about this result because we are preparing for a very important match in Scotland and have a long journey to make.
"But it was a disappointing defeat for us.
"We were a long way from our best defensively and we conceded childish goals.
"If you are fighting for the league title, you cannot concede goals like this.
"The players actually carried out the instructions well....except for losing those goals.
"We knew they would be difficult to break down, but we managed to do it....and then we conceded stupid goals.
"When my players perform well, I praise them, but when we make such basic mistakes like we did, then I have to point it out."
Follow Record Sport on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-the minute breaking news, video and audio on the SPFL, the Scotland national team and beyond.
You can get all the news you need on our dedicated Rangers and Celtic pages, and sign up to our newsletters to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season. We're also WhatsApp where we bring all the latest breaking news and transfer gossip directly to you phone. Join our Rangers community here and our Celtic community here.
Tune in to Hotline Live every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport's newest podcast, Game On, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.