It was assumed that Celtic were safe from a premature ejection from the Champions League, given the five-goal cushion they sat on at kick-off of their second leg against Astana in the final qualifying round tonight.
Celtic, however, did their best to let it slip: they fell behind early, only for Scott Sinclair to equalise and get what was assumed to be an away goal that would guarantee progression. Extraordinarily, however, Astana went on to score three goals as the Celtic defence lapsed into chaos. While the Kazakh side still needed three goals in the final fourteen minutes, such a scenario was a possibility given Celtic's hopeless defending.
But ultimately Celtic fell over the line, and added some gloss to the scoreline late on with goals from Olivier Ntcham and Leigh Griffiths. The game ultimately finished 4-3 to Astana, and a slightly ludicrous 8-4 on aggregate.
Brendan Rodgers: never dull.
Here are the Celtic goals.
Scott Sinclair nabbed an (ultimately) critical away goal
Amid the panic, Ntcham kept his cool to make it 4-2 and seal passage:
Ntcham's goal. That @CelticGoals is a slacker. pic.twitter.com/wElGUbcTxt
— CelticLisboa (@CelticLisboa) August 22, 2017
And Leigh Griffiths then gave the scoreboard further gloss:
GOAL! 3-4 v Astana @Leighgriff09 pic.twitter.com/7rar4j58As
— CelticGoals ☘ (@CelticGoals) August 22, 2017
