Celtic 2-1 Astana: Moussa Dembele penalty seals Celtic progression

By Allan Valente

Thursday 4 August 2016 08:39, UK

Celtic booked their place in the Champions League play-off round after Moussa Dembele scored a last minute penalty to seal a 2-1 win over FC Astana at Celtic Park and secure a 3-2 aggregate victory.

The hosts were on top but it took until stoppage time in the first half before Leigh Griffiths gave his side the lead from the spot after Kieran Tierney was adjudged to have been fouled in the box.

Astana came into the game more as the match wore on and Celtic Park was stunned when substitute Agim Ibraimi took advantage of a Craig Gordon error to equalise from distance.

The game looked to be heading to extra time before Igor Shitov brought down Dembele in the box in stoppage time and the former Fulham striker scored his first goal for his new club from the spot.

There was no place in the squad for Efe Ambrose at Celtic Park while Kolo Toure started on the bench as Brendan Rodgers also rang the changes up front, dropping Dembele in favour of James Forrest, with the tie locked at 1-1 from the first leg.

And it was Forrest and Tierney who caused the visitors problems early on, combining well and using their pace to get at the Astana defence.

Griffiths also looked lively and nearly got on the end of Mikael Lustig's long ball over the top but Yuri Logvinenko did well to clear the danger before the Celtic striker fired just wide from 25 yards shortly afterwards.

There was a concern for the home side just after the half hour mark as Patrick Roberts was forced off through injury to be replaced by Stefan Johansen.

Celtic then went close through Stuart Armstrong, whose effort was held by Nenad Eric, and then Griffiths, who could not work an effort past the stubborn Astana defence.

The breakthrough did arrive on the stroke of half-time, however, as Roger Canas played team-mate Abzal Beysebekov into trouble with a poor headed clearance and he bundled over Tierney while trying to clear the ball in the box.

Griffiths stepped up and made no mistake from the spot, sending Eric the wrong way and firing into the left-hand corner.

The striker had a chance to double the lead shortly after the break but he slammed his effort into the side netting after being put through by Johansen.

On the hour mark Toure was given a rapturous welcome as he replaced Armstrong to make his debut but Celtic Park was stunned into silence two minutes later when the visitors equalised.

Gordon came rushing off his line to deal with a long ball on the edge of the box but his header found Ibraimi about 40 yards out who composed himself and fired his effort into the back of the net from distance.

Both sides exchanged chances, with Junior Kabananga having a great opportunity to put the visitors in front, as the game edged towards extra time.

However, Celtic won it and sealed progression in stoppage time when French forward Dembele scored from the spot after he had been tripped by Shitov, who was shown his second yellow card, with Dmitri Shomko also red carded amid the drama.