Celtic held by Atletico but keep Champions League dream alive
A raucous Glaswegian atmosphere roared the Bhoys into a lead inside four minutes, as the hosts produced a beautifully flowing move hardly befitting of a side that had won just two of their previous 28 UCL matches.
After receiving the ball on the edge of the area from Kyogo Furuhashi, Matt O’Riley expertly returned the ball to the Japanese international who fired home the opener.
Diego Simeone spent large portions of the early stages trying to calm his side, and after an Antoine Griezmann warning shot, the Frenchman levelled the contest. After Greg Taylor had felled Nahuel Molina in the box, Griezmann initially saw his penalty saved by Joe Hart, but he tucked home the rebound to silence Celtic Park.
Parity would last less than three minutes however, as the resurgent hosts stormed back into the lead through Luis Palma’s driven effort after he was found at the back post by Daizen Maeda.
Celtic pushed to extend their lead but saw O’Riley’s effort beaten away by Jan Oblak, and survived a scare before the break when Axel Witsel’s header was disallowed for the tightest of offsides. The hosts didn’t heed their warnings however, and within eight minutes of the restart, Atléti were level.
Marcos Llorente’s teasing cross was met by a stunning stooping header from Álvaro Morata, directed perfectly out of the reach of a despairing Joe Hart.
The visitors were now in the ascendancy, and Ángel Correa spurned a glorious chance to put his side ahead as he drilled a low effort straight at Hart. The pendulum wasn’t quite done swinging though, as Rodrigo De Paul was sent off after receiving a second yellow card to set up a grandstand finish in Glasgow.
Celtic piled on the pressure, but had no answer to the visitors’ rearguard as their decade-long wait for a UCL group stage win on home soil extended.
They face a huge uphill task to qualify now after collecting just one point from three matches, while Atléti’s six-match winless streak on the road in the UCL continues to blight their progress, even if they remain inside the top-two of Group E.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Matt O’Riley (Celtic)
