Celtic and Porto close in on Champions League place
Reinstated Scottish side grab valuable away goal, while Portuguese return home with 1-0 lead
Celtic were held to a 1-1 draw away to Maribor in the first leg of the Champions League play-offs on Wednesday, while Porto took control of their tie against Lille after securing a 1-0 victory in France.
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 ’keeper Craig Gordon.
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 team-mate Virgil Van Dijk’s goalbound effort.
Maribor, whose lone appearance in the Champions League group stage came 15 years ago, kept Gordon on his toes with a pair of long-range attempts with Celtic proving far more resolute defensively than they were in the previous round against Legia.
