Astana la vista, baby

Celtic leave it late

Penalties in either half, from Griffiths and substitute Dembele are enough to see Celtic qualify for the Champions League playoff round. ​

UEFA Champions League
Third qualifying round second-leg
Celtic Park
Wednesday August 3, 2016

CELTIC - 2
(Griffiths 45+2’ [Pen], Dembele 90+3 [Pen])

FC ASTANA - 1
(Ibraimi 62)



Elation and relief are probably the overriding emotions felt by everyone connected to Celtic tonight, as a late penalty from new signing Moussa Dembele sends the Scottish Champions through to the Champions League qualification playoff.

Dembele has looked desperate to hit the net since signing, but has found opportunities hard to come by. The timing of his debut goal could not have been more perfect. Doing well to nutmeg the Astana defender then drag the ball away to win the penalty, Dembele showed excellent composure and confidence to step up and hit a perfect penalty. Parkhead erupted in the way that only Parkhead can.

Celtic opened the scoring at the end of the first half through a Leigh Griffiths penalty, won via the determination of Kieran Tierney. Tierney, a player with the heart of a lion, impressed all game, as did fellow academy graduate, Eoghan O'Connell.

Astana, despite their goal, never really threatened Celtic, with assured defending from the back 4. It was a clearance from Craig Gordon, falling to Ibraimi who lofted the ball over Gordon to equalise.

Kolo Toure made his debut tonight too, coming on for Armstrong in the 61st minute. He immediately looked like a leader on the park and looks like he will be an invaluable asset to the Rodgers revolution at Celtic.

More worryingly for Celtic, Patrick Roberts had to come off injured early in the first half. Identified by Astana as one of Celtic's main attacking threats, he was doubled and tripled up on every time he got the ball. He was replaced by Stefan Johansen on 31 minutes. 5 yellow cards and a second booking for Shitov showed a lack of discpline from Astana, who looked to kick Celtic off the park due to being unable to match the Celts for footballing ability.

Overall, Celtic dominated the match and fully deserved to go through, winning the tie 3-2 on aggregate. Celtic now await their playoff opponents. The possible opponenets are:

Dinamo Zagreb

Ludogorets

Copenhagen

Hapoel Be'er Sheva

Dundalk

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CELTIC (4-3-3) Gordon; Janko, Lustig, O’Connell, Tierney; McGregor, Brown, Armstrong (Toure 60); Roberts (Johansen 32), Griffiths, Forrest (Dembele 75)

Not used: Fasan, Izaguirre, Ciftci, Rogic

FC ASTANA (4-3-3) Eric; Shitov, Logvinenko, Anicic, Shomko;, Muzhikov, Canas, Beysebekov; Twumasi, Nurgaliyan (Ibraimi 57), Kabananga

Not used: Mokin, Tagybergen, Despotovic, Najaryan, Maliy, Kulbekov