Maribor 1-1 Celtic: Bhoys keep alive Champions League hopes

Celtic kept alive their hopes of making the full Champions League draw with a 1-1 draw at Maribor in Slovenia.

The Bhoys, who had been granted a reprieve to stay in the competition following Legia Warsaw's expulsion, went ahead early on through Callum McGregor.

However, they were quickly pegged back by a well-taken Damjan Bohar equaliser.

Celtic had been totally overwhelmed by Legia over the course of two legs but produced a far more accomplished display in Slovenia.

McGregor was the Scottish side's go-to man, and he once again came up with the goods, getting the visitors off the mark just six minutes in.

But the Scottish champion's brilliant start was undone when Zeljko Filipovic slid a pass between Virgil van Dijk and Jason Denayer for Damjan Bohar to tuck past the hitherto untroubled Craig Gordon.

But unlike the collapse in Warsaw, Celtic did not fold and but for two instances of real misfortune would have been back in front before half-time as first Charlie Mulgrew watched a back-post header cleared off the line by Filipovic before Van Dijk's effort smacked Johansen in the face, preventing an apparently inevitable goal.

Celtic had to work their socks off to prevent falling behind and Gordon had to be at his best to stop Petar Stojanovic and Agim Ibraimi firing the hosts in front.

Eventually, the game was settled at 1-1 and Celtic will be confident of making it into the full Champions League draw next week when the two sides meet again in the second leg on Tuesday.