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Celtic claim valuable draw at Spartak Moscow
MOSCOW (AFP) - Scottish champions Celtic overcame their fears of a synthetic pitch to hold Spartak Moscow to a valuable 1-1 draw in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the Champions' League here Wednesday.
Russian international striker Roman Pavlyuchenko saved the day for Spartak after Paul Hartley had put Celtic ahead at the 83,000-seater Luzhniki stadium, which will host the competition final on May 21.
Spartak coach Stanislav Cherchesov was under no illusions about the challenge facing the nine-time Russian champions in the second leg at Celtic Park in two weeks' time.
"Now we need to win the away match," he said.
"We were well-prepared for the match but missed too many chances. We expect a tough match in Glasgow but now we have no other choice but to win it to go through to the group stages."
Spartak seized the initiative right from kick-off by pinning their rivals back, however the hosts lacked precision and came up against the solid figure of Celtic keeper Mark Brown.
In the ninth minute Brown was however unable to prevent a Pavlyuchenko strike. Thankfully for Celtic, it was ruled for an albeit arguable offside by German referee Herbert Fandel.
Spartak continued to dominate but it was Celtic midfielder Hartley who netted the opening goal, firing home with a 11-metre header from Scott McDonald's razor-sharp cross on 21 minutes.
Spartak drove forward in search of an equaliser, and Brazilian striker Soares Welliton missed a clear chance just after the half-hour mark, sending the ball just inches wide with a close-range header from Vladimir Bystrov's short cross.
Spartak were given their just rewards three minutes before the break when Pavlyuchenko headed home from the edge of the six-yard box from Roman Shishkin's cross.
Dmitry Torbinsky then had an opportunity to put his side in front just a minute later but Celtic full back Mark Wilson prevented his breakaway attempt by forcing a corner.
After the interval Spartak continued to pile on the pressure, creating more clear scoring chances but again coming up against an astute Celtic defence.
Celtic meanwhile missed what could have been a tie-killing goal when Scott Brown saw his breakaway attempt stymied by Spartak keeper Stipe Pletikosa six minutes from time.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan was quick to applaud the efforts of his young side, some of whom were playing at European level for the first time.
"It was an exciting game and I'm very proud of my players, for a few of whom it was a European debut," he said.
"I have a very young team. And I'm very pleased with the result against a very good Moscow team."
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