Ronny Deila’s men finish bottom of the group with three draws, and without a win as they now aim to recover in their bid to retain the Scottish Premiership that gives them access to the Champions League qualifiers starting in July.
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But this game changed in the 67th minute when Fenerbahce midfielder Diego, booked early in the first-half after an altercation with Hoops midfielder Stefan Johansen, was shown a straight red by Belgian referee Serge Gumienny for a kick at the Norwegian.
Scott Allan was handed his first start in a Celtic shirt since signing for the club in the summer while James Forrest, along with Commons, returned from injury and also made an appearance from the bench. A win against Besiktas will take them through to the last 32 while the Turks only need a draw.
Fenerbahce’s away win in the previous fixture against Solskjaer’s squad (2-0) spiced things up a bit, and now a victory over Celtic could secure them the first position in the standings, provided that Ajax record a home win against Molde. Molde come into matchday six with 10 points and are safely into the knockout stages while Fenerbahce are on eight, Ajax six and Celtic two.
In the fourth minute Gordon did well to tip a powerful angled-drive from Fenerbahce midfielder Mehmet Topal on to the post before the visitors scrambled the ball clear.
75′ – GOAL! Fenerbahce 1-1 Celtic: Commons, seconds after coming on, with a diving header into the top corner from Lustig’s cross from the right.
The Parkhead club responded to comments attributed to the 24-year-old’s agent, Dudu Dahan, which suggested Bitton was likely to be the next Hoops player to depart for the Barclays Premier League.
“We’ve done pretty well against the bigger names in the group”, he said.
“We have played some good stuff at times”.
“We have already assessed the games we have had”.
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“But we have seen that other teams have come away from here with points so everything is possible”.
