Football
ESPN staff 9y

Celtic ease to win in Champions League qualifying second round

Celtic's Champions League journey began with a comfortable 2-0 qualifying win over Icelandic outfit Stjarnan at Parkhead.

The visitors came with hopes of spoiling the party in the first leg of the second qualifying round, but even though the home side passed up several chances to take the lead, they eventually made the breakthrough. Defender Dedryck Boyata -- making his competitive debut -- headed in the opener a minute from the break from Stefan Johansen's cross.

The Norwegian midfielder made it 2-0 early in the second half with a confident finish.

Second-half substitute Leigh Griffiths had a penalty saved in the 78th minute by former Motherwell keeper Gunnar Neilsen.

Belausian side BATE Borizov, who reached the group stage in 2010 and 2011, defeated League of Ireland champions Dundalk 2-1.

BATE's Aleksandr Karnitski opened the scoring in the 10th minute. A sloppy Shields mistake in midfield allowed BATE to surge forward and Vitali Rodionov and Aleksandr Karnitski exchanged passes on the edge of the box before the latter sent a shot past Gary Rogers.

David McMillan, who missed a glorious chance earlier in the game, equalised after 33 minutes when he pounced on a stray ball before shooting through the goalkeeper's legs for a crucial away goal, but BATE retook the lead five minutes later.

Rogers looked to have a comfortable save to make from Evgeni Yablonski's shot from the edge of the area but the ball clipped Chris Shields and wrong-footed the Lilywhites keeper.

Dinamo Zagreb were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Luxembourg champions Fola Esch.

Samir Hadji sent the visitors into dreamland with a 25th-minute opener, but Angelo Henriquez equalised for Zagreb 11 minutes later.

Swedish champions Malmo, who reached the group stage a year ago, were held at home to a goalless draw by Zalgiris Vilnius of Lithuania, while while Azerbaijan's Qarabag also failed to break through against Rudar Pljevlja of Montenegro.

^ Back to Top ^