Football
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Celtic face trip to Kazakhstan in Champions League qualifying

Celtic will go to Kazakhstan to take on Astana in the Champions League third qualifying round after overcoming semiprofessional side Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar 3-0 to advance 3-1 on aggregate.

The Hoops had been embarrassed by a 1-0 defeat in last week's first leg in Gibraltar, in what was new boss Brendan Rodgers' first competitive game.

However, Celtic burst out of the traps eager to get revenge and three first-half goals from defender Mikael Lustig, striker Leigh Griffiths and winger Patrick Roberts had the tie finished before the break, with the second half a mere formality.

Astana were seconds away from exiting the competition in their own second qualifying round tie, set to go out to Zalgiris Vilnius on away goals before Marin Anicic's strike three minutes into stoppage time secured a 2-1 victory.

Other headline ties in the champions route see Olympiakos take on Hapoel Beer-Sheva and Astra Giurgiu face FC Copenhagen.

Shakhtar Donetsk will start their quest while exiled from their conflict-torn home city for a third season against Young Boys in the league route, for teams who qualified but did not win their domestic league.

Shakhtar have overcome the turmoil of being based in Kiev, and playing in Lviv, to play in the Champions League group stage for the past two seasons.

"Can you imagine we don't have our home, we don't have our fans, we don't have our stadium, we don't have our training camp. We have nothing," Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin told The Associated Press.

Shakhtar and Rostov were kept apart by a UEFA rule since 2014 blocking teams from Ukraine and Russia being drawn to play each other.

Rostov, an unheralded regional club in the competition for the first time, were paired with Anderlecht in the third qualifying round. Their reward for advancing could be a playoff against Manchester City, Roma or Porto.

The third-round ties will be played on July 26-27 and Aug. 2-3.

League Route:

Entering in playoff round (draw Aug. 5): Manchester City, Porto, Villarreal, Borussia Monchengladbach, Roma

Champions Route:

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