Celtic beat Utrecht 4-2 at Parkhead to earn a spot in subsequent month’s Europa League playoffs.
The Scottish Premiership champions did the job early as Martin O’Neill’s aspect went 3-0 up inside solely 19 minutes because of strikes from Benjamin Nygren, a Nick Viergever personal aim and an Arne Engels penalty, the membership’s earliest-ever three-goal lead in a significant European recreation.
The opener got here after a well-worked aim following a brief nook as Kieran Tierney received to the byline and pulled the pull again for Nygren to attain from shut vary, the tall Swede’s 14th aim already of a formidable marketing campaign.
The hosts quickly doubled their lead after a listing of errors on the again from Utrecht as first former Celtic goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas’s under-hit cross out from the again was intercepted by that man Nygren.
And the ahead’s low ball throughout the field was become his personal internet by the unlucky Nick Viergever because the customer’s skipper stretched to intercept.
It then went from dangerous to worse for the Eredivisie aspect when Dani de Wit was harshly adjudged to have dealt with Auston Trusty’s close-range header from a nook, with Engels doing the remaining from the spot.
Nevertheless, Celtic misplaced their means earlier than half-time, maybe pondering the sport was over, with De Wit sweeping house from the sting of the field and when Adrian Blake additionally discovered the web from distance after a swift counter simply previous the hour mark, house nerves started to jangle.
Not for lengthy, although, with the house group quickly restoring their two-goal cushion as Trusty rose highest within the six-yard field to nod house Engels’s inviting ball in from a nook to verify their place within the playoffs on February 19 and 26, with Friday’s draw set to verify their opponents – both Stuttgart or Ferencvaros.
