Celtic were held to a 1-1 draw away to Slovenian side NK Maribor in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League playoff on Wednesday, while Porto took control of their tie against LOSC Lille Metropole after securing a 1-0 victory in France.
Scottish club Celtic, who were reinstated to Europe’s premier club competition after Poland’s Legia Warsaw were punished for fielding an ineligible player, made a bright start against the Slovenian champions when Callum McGregor gave them a sixth-minute lead.
McGregor, enjoying a fine start to his debut season with the Glasgow giants, pounced on a rebound after Jo Inge Berget was initially denied by Maribor goalkeeper Jasmin Handanovic to fire home his fourth goal in seven matches. However, Ronny Deila’s men were pegged back just before the quarter-hour as Zeljko Filipovic thread the ball through to Damjan Bohar who held his composure to calmly steer beyond Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon.
Photo: EPA
Filipovic then came to his side’s rescue to clear Charlie Mulgrew’s header off the line before Celtic midfielder Stefan Johansen unwittingly got in the way of teammate Virgil Van Dijk’s goal-bound effort.
Maribor, whose lone appearance in the Champions League group stage was 15 years ago, kept Gordon on his toes with a pair of long-range attempts as Celtic proved far more resolute defensively than they were in the previous round against Legia.
Johansen squandered a golden chance to put the Scottish champions in the driving seat midway through the second half as he lost his balance having escaped clear of the Maribor defense, but Celtic will remain confident of completing the job in next week’s return leg at Parkhead.
Photo: AFP
“I think we were closer to winning the game than they were,” Celtic boss Deila told SkySports afterward. “The performance was good, I’m pleased and it’s going to be very exciting to play them at Celtic Park next week.”
Two-time former European champions Porto will take a 1-0 advantage into next week’s second leg against Lille in Portugal, after Mexico international Hector Herrera popped up with the game’s lone goal on 61 minutes at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy to leave the Portuguese club on the cusp of a fourth straight group-stage appearance.
In the day’s other first-leg ties, Oleg Shatov’s 16th-minute strike put Zenit St Petersburg saw Andre Villas-Boas’ men secure a 1-0 win against Belgium’s Standard Liege, while Slovan Bratislava striker Robert Vittek equalized 10 minutes from time in a 1-1 draw at home to Belarussian outfit BATE Borisov to leave the Slovakian title-holders in with a fighting chance of reaching the group stage for the first time.
APOEL Nicosia secured a vital away goal courtesy of Brazilian midfielder Vinicius as the Cypriot champions recovered to earn a 1-1 draw at Danish side Aalborg BK.
In the UEFA Europa League first-leg playoff round on Wednesday, Ukrainian club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk beat 2 HNK Hajduk Split of Croatia 2-1 in Kiev, while Serie A giants Inter crushed Icelandic team Stjarnan Gardabae in Reykjavik.
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