Leigh Griffiths scored from the spot in the dying seconds of the first half, before Astana equalised in the second half.
Advertisement
Celtic progress to the Champions League play-off round, the draw for which takes place on Friday.
But with half an hour remaining Astana offered a riposte, with Agim Ibraimi profiting from Craig Gordon’s poor clearance to draw the teams level on the night and in the tie.
The match looked headed for extra time until Dembele was hacked down in the box in the final moments of the match.
Recent signing Kolo Toure could feature along with Corks Eoghan O’Connell who made his debut last week. And, having already handled a striker with an aggressive edge in Luis Suarez, the ex- Liverpool boss says it shows the Celtic player is clearly an under-valued talent. “Pleased for both of them but obviously Moussa for his first goal”.
However, the goal came just over a minute after new boy Kolo Toure entered the fray, which sparked an endless slew of the obvious joke which quickly became hackneyed on social media.
Celtic will now wait to discover their opponents in the playoff round and will face one of Dinamo Zagreb, Ludogorets Razgrad, FC Copenhagen, Hapoel Beer Sheva or Dundalk.
He said: “We showed a real doggedness last week to keep going and, maybe by the end of the game, we were unfortunate not to have won it”. “We’ll just take whoever comes in the next game”.
He said: “What events since tell you is how much of a threat they see him as”.
“I always think that to be a victor and to be the best, you need to be on the limit and Leigh plays on the limit”. “In order to maintain the positive atmosphere in the squad, I don’t want to discuss such issues with my players”. We have to circulate the ball.
Advertisement
“I have sensed in the few games that we have had there that the crowd have been brilliant for us and the players have responded to that and likewise, hopefully tomorrow night we show another side to our game”.
