Celtic enjoyed their first ever away win in the Champions League tonight with a thrilling 3-2 win over Spartak Moscow.
Gary Hooper put the Celts in front before a double from Emmanuel Eminike gave the Russians the advantage but after Spartak were reduced to ten men goals from James Forrest and Georgios Samaras gave Celtic a famous victory.
Celtic are now four points ahead of Spartak going into a double header with Barcelona with the Russians unable to cope with the passion and skill of Neil Lennon’s side who recorded their third successive win on foreign soil.
Celtic took the lead in the 12th minute with the Luzihiki Stadium stunned into silence except for the delighted band of 200 visiting supporters.
Victor Wanyama cruised through a 50-50 challenge before feeding the ball onto the overlapping Mikael Lustig. The Swede’s first time cross was met perfectly at the front post by Hooper who volleyed the ball across goalkeeper Pesyakov into the far corner of the net.
After an early flurry of corners Spartak struggled to break down the Celtic defence and were fortunate to avoid going further behind when a Hooper header was disallowed for offside in the 25th minute.
Within touching distance of the half-time whistle the Russians were back on level terms when Ary squared the ball across the six yard box for Eminke to stab the ball past Fraser Forster.
Three minutes into the second half the same duo combined to put Spartak in front with Ary squaring the ball across the goal line for Eminike to net after Forster had parried a 25 yard drive.
Shrugging off the demons of the past Celtic chased an equaliser with Spartak defender Juan Insaurralde red carded for a cynical trip on Hooper as the striker raced in on goal from a brilliant Mulgrew pass.
The referee initially missed the incident but after a four minute delay Mulgrew’s free kick was beaten away by Pesyakov.
With Spartak down to ten men Celtic sent on James Forrest for Wanyama with the sub bringing the visitors level three minutes after coming on the park.
Mulgrew’s cross from the left was dummied by Samaras with Hooper laying the ball into the path of Forrest whose shot was parried by the keeper before crashing off a defender into the net.
Scenting victory and with Aiden McGeady substituted Emilo Izaguirre swung in an inviting cross from the left with Samaras glancing a near post header beyond the keeper into the net.
SPARTAK MOSCOW (4-3-3) Pesyakov; Makeev, Insaurralde, Pareja, D. Kombarov; Carioca, Kallstrom, De Zeeuw (Bryzgalov 65); Ari (Kozlov 87) Emenike, McGeady ( Dzyuba 76)
Subs: Rebrov, K. Kombarov, Yakovlev, Bilyaletdinov
CELTIC (4-4-2) Forster; Lustig, Wilson, Ambrose, Izaguirre; Commons, Brown, Wanyama (Forrest 70) Mulgrew (Ledley 78) Samaras, Hooper
Subs: Zaluska, Miku, Watt, Rogne, Kayal
Referee: Tony Chapron (France)
CLICK HERE for Spartak Moscow gallery
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Brilliant!
That.
Is.
Sensational!
Fan tas tic,Celtic were great,the only spoiling thing for me was the inane chatter from Croker and the dour asides from Provan,just dire but hail hail to all at Celtic FC for a fantastic night,,,,
Watched it over here in Thailand. After a shaky start well impressed. Great result. We can spank them in Glasgow too!Hail! Hail! 🙂
Yes!
Well deserved.
Hail Hail.
Waiting so long made it even sweeter, fantastic result !! well done to Neil and the bhoys, should get us at least europa league footie after xmas .
so so good
Two good substitutions from Neil Lennon. The game was crying out for Forrest and Ledley. That it was for two players with yellow cards, was being tactically aware. Looking good! COTH.
Great result. Can’t wait for the Barca double header
The ‘Young Guns’ just came of age. A ‘Night to Remember’ for them and a night to be celebrated by us. Like Tully, I am looking forward to Barca now even though we will probably be brought down to earth. It will great experience for these kids and a good benchmark for ourselves to judge just how far they have developed. A fantastic effort and an incredible result. Well done.
H H
Joe ask your wee Spartak Moscow mate,what’s Russian for ‘GET IT UP YE’
Proud of you all, well done the lot of you!
Great all round performance, and wise substitutions by Lenny.
Pity about the camera work, a throwback to the Cold War days. 3 away wins in Europe on the trot, really well done !
Superb display, we looked dangerous every time we went forward. A fantastic save from the keeper prevented Ledley.
Astute by Lennon withdrawing both players on yellows as I’m sure Moscow would have tried to get one of them in bother. Although Wanyama was very unlucky with his booking the Spartak guy tripped himself…hope it gets over-turned.
Kept our discipline well, held our shape despite the bad setbacks either side of halftime. A wee bit more composure needed, gave away too many corners…but very promising.
We have nothing to lose v Barca in either leg, no-one expects us to get anything so have a real go at them in BOTH legs. Then we can set our stall out v the rest.
Not sure Ambrose & Wilson is the ideal pairing, both similar in style..but delighted for all involved. Time for analysis later, tonight we can celebrate.
Neil Lennon you are a genius !!! Great being a Tim .Glasgow’s green n white
Outstanding result. The players showed their mettle tonight coming back from 2-1 down away from home and seem to be maturing on the European stage with every passing game. Well done to Lenny and the bhoys you did us proud. Now bring on the Barca!
Hail Hail.
I think they had some key player’s missing tonight, but we were fantastic! and to finally get the away win is a huge pressure of the club. Neil is showing great tactical awareness and the future looks green and white!
Excellent performance.our young bhoys can now go out and enjoy their double header with barca and have a real go safe in the knowledge that whatever happens they are still right in this tournament. Well done Neil and the bhoys
So very proud of my team, so very proud indeed.
I think spartaks arrogance contributed to their downfall, all the derogatory comments made after the draw, and then the russian jorno that was taking the piss out of celtic at the pre match press confrence. Money does not buy class or history , have some of that