Celtic 1-0 Young Boys: Hoops secure Champions League progression with dramatic victory

Celtic secured Champions League progression with a Young Boys own goal on a night of disallowed goals, missed penalties and red card drama at Parkhead.

The Hoops knew a win against the side bottom of the table would all but guarantee a play-off place and Kyogo thought he had given them the dream start only for his strike to be ruled out for offside.

Callum McGregor’s foul saw the Japan striker denied again before he had a third goal ruled out, again for offside, as they dominated against a side who have yet to pick up a point in this season’s Champions League.

Luck wasn’t on Celtic’s side with Arne Engels’ poor penalty easily saved after Greg Taylor was brought down in the box before half-time.

Auston Trusty struck the bar before Kasper Schmeichel produced a brilliant double save to deny Young Boys, but their fortunes turned when Loris Benito turned Adam Idah’s ball into his own net to spark wild celebrations.

Celtic have Daizen Maeda sent off for a late, pointless challenge as they progressed to the knockout stages with a game to spare.

Hoops end 12-year wait

A draw would have left Celtic potentially needing a result at Villa Park next Wednesday but the late goal propelled them up to 18th place, level on 12 points with Juventus, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

A win in Birmingham next week would likely see Celtic claim one of the seeded places in the play-off round, if not a top-eight finish and direct entry to the last 16.

The late slice of luck was no less than Celtic deserved for a performance that was full of verve for 60 minutes. Midfielders Callum McGregor, Engels and Hatate dominated play and Celtic found spaces through the visiting back four right from the start.

Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn got round the outside with regularity but the deliveries were not quite falling for Furuhashi.

The Japan forward’s first offside goal came inside six minutes following a pass from Engels and Kuhn soon got in behind following McGregor’s pass but saw his shot deflected wide after skipping past three men.

Hatate and Furuhashi shot wide from half-chances before Kasper Schmeichel made his only first-half stop to beat away Joel Monteiro’s 25-yard strike.

Furuhashi then had two goals chalked off inside two minutes just after the half-hour mark. The first was initially given after McGregor robbed Niasse and set up the centre-forward to wrongfoot the goalkeeper but Norwegian referee Rohit Saggi penalised the Celtic captain for a foul following a VAR review.

Furuhashi was then flagged offside again after converting Maeda’s cross from close range.

Engels’ weak penalty was saved in the 41st minute after Taylor had his shirt pulled but the Belgian shook off the miss to create several chances from set-pieces before the break. Furuhashi and Hatate – twice – came close.

The pressure continued after the interval. Engels, Maeda and McGregor had shots saved and Trusty headed against the bar before Celtic almost got hit by a sucker punch only for Schmeichel to pull off a brilliant double stop from Darian Males.

Celtic’s energy levels started to dip and Brendan Rodgers made some changes in a bid to regain the impetus, Alex Valle and Paulo Bernardo coming on midway through the half before Idah replaced Furuhashi.

There was no immediate impact and visitors threatened from some set-pieces but Idah’s run in behind led to the goal and Schmeichel saved from Sandro Lauper in the final seconds of stoppage time.

Story of the match in stats

What’s coming up in the Champions League?