Over there wouldn’t be a second half collapse this time. Ange Postecoglou came close to the 90-minute performance he longed for against Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw, if not the win it deserved.
After being detoured by Real Madrid in the final stages in Glasgow a week ago, Celtic have shown they have the stamina at this level.
Towards the end of an impressive, controlled showing, a first run in this campaign felt like meager rewards for their efforts. They will play worse and win matches at this level.
Ange Postecoglou came close to the 90 minute performance he longed for against Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw, if not the win it deserved
Artem Bondarenko scored an own goal in the first 10 minutes to give Celtic the lead
After dominating from the start and firing forward through Artem Bondarenko’s own goal, it looked for a moment that a comfortable victory was at stake.
Shakhtar’s response came with a lavish counter-attack finished by Mykhailo Mudryk, but it was short-lived.
Apart from a short period after the equaliser, Celtic were clearly the better side.
Back to Anderlecht five years ago, the wait to win on the road in this competition goes on and on, but only a failure to change a hat full of opportunities made that happen.
Postecoglou gave Sead Haksabanovic his first start when the left winger pushed Jota to the right.
Gone are the days when Shakhtar’s side boasted of a backbone of South American talent. Stripped of almost all of their foreign imports as a result of the Russian invasion, the lone non-Ukrainian on their side was Brazilian left-back Lucas Taylor. On the right is Marian Shved, once of Celtic.
Shakhtar manager Igor Jovicevic’s predictions that up to 30,000 exiled Ukrainians would be there to roar his team turned out to be a dream.
The ‘home’ of the banned club in Europe, the stadium of Legia Warsaw, was nowhere near enough capacity. There was certainly no wall of noise to intimidate Postecoglou’s side.
The pervasive feeling was that if Celtic came close to their first-half match against Madrid, they would stop for a moment.
They definitely jumped out of the trap. Only the shoe of the advancing Anatoliy Trubin prevented Kyogo Furuhashi from snapping Matt O’Riley’s measured pass within two minutes.
Shakhtar already looked startled. A neat trade-off between Greg Taylor and Haksabanovic on the left saw the latter roll the ball over the six-yard box at a brisk pace. The lurking Furuhashi was only inches from the conversion.
When O’Riley then headed a cross from Jota into the arms of the Shakhtar keeper, the opener felt only a matter of time.
It came in 11 minutes and stemmed from the Ukrainians’ first venture onto the pitch. Mykhailo Mudryk’s indecision invited Josip Juranovic to clear his lines. The fullback did more than that.
With Shakhtar stretched numerically, Juranovic’s 60-yard cross field pass was picked up by Haksabanovic. He undisputedly rode forward into the box and took out the underlying Hatate.
The midfielder’s shot was deflected towards goal by Artem Bondarenko and initially looked like it might take a hand to make it across the line. Furuhashi resisted the temptation to bring it in and ran to his compatriot to celebrate.
How the 3,000 visiting fans enjoyed their first Champions League goal on the road since Moussa Dembele against Paris Saint-Germain five years ago.
Moritz Jenz came close to doubling the advantage with a fierce drive that bounced off the keeper’s legs. A second Celtic goal would not have been undeserved on the early game balance.
But Shakhtar got a foothold in the match too late. However, you couldn’t tell that their equalizer was coming.
It was a well made goal. Yukhym Konoplia’s ball from center to left cut Celtic open and gave Mudryk a two yards start off Juranovic.
As fast as the Croat is, he just couldn’t make up for it. Mudryk slid the ball from his right foot to his left and drove it emphatically high into the net.
Shakhtar’s number 10 was set to move to Arsenal in January, adding a few pounds to his value here with a striking display.
Being so at the top in the early stages this was another reminder for Celtic of the need to be clinical at this level.
Shakhtar had flipped Leipzig on the counter-attack last week and now they felt like pulling the trick back. Hart bravely saved Konoplia’s cross to avoid turning the game upside down quickly, then ducked to the right to clear Shved’s curling attempt for a corner.
Jota had been unusually quiet, but a maze at the start of halftime ended with a deflection that took the sting out of his shot.
The Portuguese was shifted to his preferred left in the second half when Daizen Maeda replaced Haksabanovic and his shot immediately fiddled through Trubin.
A fantastic weave from Jota then eliminated five orange shirts just for Konoplia’s sliding block to save the day.
It became a cat and mouse game. Celtic passed and probed while aware that one wrong move on the front foot could be extremely costly.
Matt O’Riley was only denied Celtic’s second by Trubin’s strong left arm after he drilled a low shot from 20 yards.
Feeling that Shakhtar may have burned himself out, Postecoglou threw at Giorgos Giakoumakis, Aaron Mooy and David Turnbull with 22 minutes to go.
Another Shakhtar foul put Jota on another slalom through their defense. He resisted two chances to fire and by the time he flew, Valeriy Bondar slid in and blocked.
A selfless knockdown from Giakoumakis provided Maeda, but the winger fell as he fired and a deflection took the ball behind him.
Excellent again here, Greg Taylor’s cut-back Giakoumakis set up for what should have been the winner with five minutes to go. With time to pick his spot, the Greek somehow fired wide from 12 yards.
Only one side seemed to win it later. Maeda stretched to hit Juranovic’s cross near the far post, but couldn’t get his shot on target.
Shakhtar held on to a barely earned point. Celtic will feel they should have all three, but will be encouraged by the fact that at least they are on the board in the group.
More to follow…