Scott Brown poured scorn on Shakhtar Karagandy after Celtic moved through to the group stages of the Champions League.
The captain was booked for celebrating in front of Aleksandr Mokin, the Kazakhs' goalkeeper, after James Forrest gave Celtic a 3-0 lead. "We were celebrating in there while they are killing another sheep," said Brown of the scenes in the Celtic dressing-room, referring to the visitors' ritual slaughter of a sheep before matches.
Brown took exception both to the Shakhter players' reaction to their home victory and to their predictions of what might happen at Celtic Park. "That was sweet. They came here saying they expected to score two or three but everybody underestimated us and we showed how good a team we really are. We were angry about everything last week," he said.
He was dismissive of the quality of the Kazakh champions, saying: "The only shot they had on goal tonight came from a long throw-in when they hit the bar. That's all they have: long throws. Can you imagine them in the Champions League? Wow. I couldn't."
Celtic dominated both possession and chances and Brown said of the visitors: "That wasn't football they played. That was embarrassing. They came here just to defend a two-goal and how they were going to score two goals when they didn't have two shots on target is beyond me."
Brown appeared to stand on Gediminas Vicius in the first half but he said: "They were rolling about all day. I don't know if I stood on him or not. But they were diving every two seconds and wasting time from the first minute. It was embarrassing.
"I got booked for celebrating the way they celebrated at the end of the first game. They were in everybody's faces. I know we are a big club and they were delighted to beat us but you have to show a bit of respect and they got what they deserved."
Anthony Stokes, whose fine run and cross led to the vital third goal, said: " Listen, they did their talking in the papers; we did our talking on the pitch tonight. It's as simple as that. We rode our luck. One came off the crossbar. But that was always going to be the case; they had a game plan and it wasn't going to change. They played long balls into the box, hoofed balls up the pitch."
The draw for the group stages takes place today and the Irishman said: "I don't care who we get. When you get to this stage, you just sit back and enjoy it. It's massive to be in the Champions League. When players come here, that is one of the things that entices them. After last year, we didn't want to go out with a whimper. We want to become regulars in the Champions League. We're trying to build a squad here and a mentality that says this is where we belong."
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