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VIKTOR KUMYKOV herded his players around for the sacrificial slitting of a sheep’s throat.

He did it in secret and wouldn’t talk about it. However, you would have needed woollen ears not to hear the one message blasted out clearly by the Shakhter Karagandy coach ahead of tonight’s Champions League date with Celtic.

We won’t be lambs to the slaughter.

Karagandy are the first Kazakhstan side to reach the play-off stage of the competition, but that’s not enough for this burly band of underdogs.

Beating Albanians KS Skenderbeu has given them a shot at Celtic but it’s the earlier win over Belarusians BATE Borisov that really heightened their ambitions.

Before each home game in the previous rounds, Kumykov and his men carried out the club tradition.

He was sheepish about mentioning it when he said: “There is a tradition we do not like to disclose. We do not like to talk about the details.”

But there was no hiding his belief that his team are in with a genuine shout of a giant-killing. He added: “In football it’s not only the strongest teams that win and there are many examples of this, not least in the Champions League.

“We are newcomers to the competition and Celtic are a very big and experienced club who are also former champions of Europe.

“We are students and they are teachers and our main wish is to gain experience of playing in the Champions League, but this doesn’t mean we’ll be easy to beat.

“We will do our best and I am hopeful we will be able to play our best game.”

Kumykov appears to be taking the whole experience in his stride. He is happy to play the underdog card, but there is no doubt he knows Neil Lennon’s hand, having done his research and homework.

He added: “We have watched all of their Champions League games plus their last match against Aberdeen and the friendly with Liverpool.

“They have a good squad and a good team. The spirit of their game is excellent so it will be a very tough match.”

Kumykov is right. Celtic haven’t lost any of their last eight Champions League qualifying games, shipping just a single goal in the process.

They are playing on yet another plastic pitch tonight with Shakhter using the Astana Arena instead of their ramshackle Shakhtyor Stadium but Kumykov doesn’t believe that gives his side an edge.

He added: “We are in the same situation in relation to the pitch, but there might be some difficulties for them in relation to a long flight.”