Griffiths scored in Celtic’s 1-1 draw with Champions League qualifying rivals Astana, who failed in a bid to get the striker suspended for tonight’s game at Parkhead. Now installed as Celtic’s regular penalty taker, despite Leigh Griffiths netting from 12 yards during the first half, he ended a short, sharp run-up with the crispest of finishes.
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Earlier, Leigh Griffiths netted with a penalty in first-half stoppage time only for Agim Ibraimi to level the tie on aggregate midway through the second half.
Three years ago Shakhter Karagandy won 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League play-off against the Hoops but buckled in the return game in Glasgow, losing 3-0 with James Forrest scoring the victor in stoppage time.
Fortunately for Celtic, they managed to avoid extra-time in the 11th hour of the game courtesy of a spot-kick from Moussa Dembele following Igor Shitov’s sending off. “If you can’t go forward and you can’t play sideways, you have to come back”.
On Bitton’s injury, Rodgers said: “He will struggle to make the game”.
“We went a goal down from a set-piece which wasn’t ideal for us but we did well to get the away goal so that means they need to come out here and try to score”.
Dinamo Zagreb, Ludogorets, Copenhagen, Dundalk or Hapoel Be’er Sheva lie in wait and the boss, who handed Kolo Toure a debut, said: “It’s the final step”.
That said, Astana qualified into the Champions League group stages last season after beating Maribor, HJK and APOEL Nicosia in qualifying and posted three home draws against Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Galatasaray in the tournament proper.
The Nigeria worldwide has become the scapegoat of the supporters over the last couple of seasons and was booed after scoring an own goal in the 3-1 defeat by Barcelona last weekend.
“I thought we were good in terms of some of our pressing, our goal comes from our ability to press and be up the field”.
“When you are a young player you want to play for a big team and to score goals in a game like that”.
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“I was in Bulgaria when Karagandy played in this arena”, he said.
