MOUSSA DOES THE TRICK
Dembele steps up to the plate to send the Bhoys through
FOR Moussa Dembele this was a Celtic coming of age, a first goal to savour. Twelve yards, Celtic’s second spot-kick of the night. Ninety minutes gone, £20million on the line and the new Bhoy stepped up to the plate.
A hush fell over Parkhead. Sharp intakes of breath sucked the spare oxygen from the old place.
A generous observer might say the 20-year-old Frenchman, scorer of 17 goals with Fulham last season, had endured a quiet start to his Celtic career. Eight games, no goals. Barely even a sniff.
As the assistant’s board went up for three minutes time added on, an additional 30 minutes beckoned. Celtic were ready. At Lennoxtown on Tuesday they practised their penalties.
But when Kazakhstan’s champions come to Glasgow’s east end, late drama and mayhem is a given.
Three years ago, James Forrest sunk Shakhter Karagandy with the last kick of the ball.
This time it was Dembele, winning the penalty himself, selling a red card to Igor Shitov in the process as he prepared to pull the trigger on a Leigh Griffiths back-heel.
As Dembele swept the ball into the net, sending keeper Nenad Eric the wrong way, Brendan Rodgers cavorted with his assistants on the touchline. Celtic Park lost it. They weren’t the only ones.
By the end Astana were down to nine men.
Their fury at the Romanian referee’s decision to award Celtic a second penalty of the evening was such that Dmitri Shomko was awarded a second yellow card for dissent.
There can be no denying that, as in the first leg, Scotland’s champions rode their luck.
Rarely have two penalties — the first for Griffiths with the last kick of the first half — been more welcome.
When Agim Ibraimi — a previous victor over Rangers and Celtic with Maribor — lobbed Craig Gordon from 40 yards for a 62ndminute equaliser, the home team endured a fraught period.
Astana had their away goal. They were growing into the game. Twice they looked the likelier to snatch a breakthrough. Twice, however, Celtic were awarded their penalties — and rightly too. By the end, the visitors were left spitting and fuming into the night.
The first spot-kick in the 45th minute was something from nothing. Kieran Tierney, Celtic’s tireless young left-back, chased a high ball to the edge of the area as defender Abzal Beysebekov made the fatal mistake of allowing it to bounce.
That was all Tierney needed. The encouragement, the split second, to nick a toe on the ball in mid-air. In that instant Beysebekov was done. His right boot made contact with Tierney’s shin instead of the ball. The teenager bundled over, ref Istvan Kovacs was perfectly placed to see it was inside the box.
A posse of Astana players went through the motions of protesting, arms askew. But not Beysebekov. He knew. He just knew.
And, soon enough, the realisation dawned on a Celtic Park already mentally preparing for a goalless first half.
Griffiths, the scoring hero of the first leg, picked the ball up. Say this for Celtic’s No 9. He missed a few penalties last season. With £20m on the line here he could have asked someone else to take it on.
But Griffiths had unfinished business with Astana.
After he was booked in the first leg following an altercation with Shitov, Astana posted footage of the clash on their website in the hope of persuading UEFA to take retrospective action.
That may explain the venom in the spot-kick which earned Celtic a vital lead.
A bright start to the game changed in 31 minutes with the loss of Patrick Roberts.
For half an hour Astana’s Shomko followed the on-loan winger everywhere. When Roberts pulled up holding his hamstring — to be replaced by Stefan Johansen — you half expected Shomko to follow him down the tunnel.
Make no mistake, it was a blow to Celtic. A significant boost for an Astana side content to soak up the pressure, awaiting their chance to hit on the break.
There was no Efe Ambrose to pick on this time. The Nigerian was left out altogether, Mikael Lustig joining Eoghan O’Connell at the heart of the defence.
Celtic were lively and promising for half an hour.
Captain Scott Brown fizzed a bicycle kick over the bar from a Stuart Armstrong corner.
Griffiths came close in 24 minutes when he found space for a drilled 25-yard effort which fizzed a foot wide of the left-hand post.
The Roberts injury altered the flow of things. The 20-year-old clutched his hamstring, prompting a return from injury for Johansen. The game changed. Not in a good way. Astana steadied. Grew in confidence and composure. Celtic had one last flurry before half-time. Callum McGregor’s scurrying run on the left flank providing a cut-back for Armstrong, the midfielder’s shot lacking the conviction to beat Astana keeper Eric Nenad. Another moment of Astana panic saw Griffiths drag the ball wide in a crowded area to create room for a shot, first-leg goalscorer Yuri Logvinenko blocking bravely. The assistant’s board showed a minute of added time and that, it seemed, was that. The penalty changed everything. It gave Celtic the cushion they needed. It lifted some tension.
Critically, it also forced Astana to come out in the second half and attack; creating likely opportunities for the home team to attack vacated space. That, at least, was the theory. And Griffiths came close to exploiting it. Twice.
The first chance came when Johansen played the penalty scorer through on goal, but his angled left-foot shot was drilled into the side-netting.
The second came from a brilliant first-time ball from Brown. Griffiths scuttled forward before his nemesis Shitov produced a brilliant block to deny a shot on goal.
At that point Celtic looked comfortable. If any team looked likely to score it was them.
We should all have heeded the grim shot across the bows in 57 minutes. Astana had a Roger Canas goal chalked off for offside as keeper Gordon raced from his line to miss the ball completely.
Rodgers acted. As promised, he sent on new signing Kolo Toure to anchor the defence to rousing cheers. The plan was to shore things up. The reality was somewhat different.
Gordon ran from his area again in 62 minutes to get a firm defensive header on a through ball.
The warning bells began to clang the minute the ball landed at the feet of Ibraimi. It was clear what came next. There was no fortune for Celtic’s keeper this time.
The Macedonian saw Gordon stranded off his line and guided a skilled lob high into the net from all of 40 yards. Celtic Park fell silent, save for a small posse of ecstatic Astana supporters.
It took late drama to lift the tension. To guarantee at the very least Europa League group stage football but, more importantly, earn a place in tomorrow’s Champions play-off round draw.