Giorgios Samaras came off the bench to score the winner as Celtic defeated Dinamo Moscow 2-0.
Big win for Bhoys
Giorgios Samaras came off the bench to score the winner as Celtic defeated Dinamo Moscow 2-0 in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League third round qualifying round clash.
After losing 1-0 in the first leg at Celtic Park last week, Celtic knew they needed at least one goal in the Russian capital to maintain their presence in the Champions League.
Tony Mowbray's men pressed from the off and they levelled matters overall just before the interval when Scott McDonald headed home Andreas Hinkel's cross.
Celtic pushed forward in the second-half looking for the winner and the match appeared to be heading for extra-time, until the final minute when Samaras worked his way into the box before firing home.
The draw for the final qualifying phase will be made on Friday, but Celtic already know they will face one from Arsenal, Stuttgart, Lyon, Fiorentina or Atletico Madrid.
Historic
The win at the Arena Khimki also created history for the Bhoys as it is the first time they have ever recovered from losing at home, to win a European tie.
Dinamo's borrowed 18,000-capacity stadium was well short of capacity with only a couple of hundred Celtic fans in the stadium.
Danny Fox made his European debut for Celtic as replacement for Lee Naylor
while Massimo Donati was given the nod over fit-again Scott Brown.
The first half went the way boss Tony Mowbray had predicted with Celtic having plenty of the ball.
But in the ninth minute it was Dinamo striker Aleksandr Kerzhakov who tested Artur Boruc with a curling effort from the edge of the box that the Hoops keeper gathered with ease.
Celtic continued to pass with confidence, winning a couple of corners in quick succession, albeit with no threat to the Dinamo goal.
The Parkhead side's first real attempt on goal, in fact, did not arrive until the 26th minute when midfielder Shaun Maloney tried to power in a drive from 30 yards but watched it skip harmlessly through to Vladimir Gabulov in the Dinamo goal.
The home side seemed content to sit in and look for the break, very much the way they had approached the first game in Glasgow, and at times a better pass or better vision may have caused Celtic problems.
But the visitors eventually got their rewards a minute from the break when striker Marc-Antoine Fortune, relatively anonymous thus far, knocked the ball back to Hinkel on the right.
He curled a high ball to the back post and the unmarked McDonald headed past Gabulov for the simplest but most important of goals.
There was still time for Hinkel to clear an effort from Dinamo skipper Dmitri Khokhlov off the line as the home side responded but it was a deserved interval lead Celtic took into the break.
Charged up
It was a charged-up Celtic side who came out after the break determined to add to their lead.
However, a moment of slackness in the visiting defence after 52 minutes, when they failed to deal with a Khokhlov cross, allowed Dmitry Kombarov space at the back post.
The Dinamo midfielder struck his left-footed shot with decent power but it sped a yard past Boruc's left-hand post.
Then, as Dinamo stepped up the pace, Dmitry Kombarov's corner from the right was headed goalwards by twin brother Kirill Kombarov but, although Boruc was beaten down to his right, Hinkel again was on the line to clear.
As the tension mounted, the Parkhead men refused to sit on their lead and in the 62nd minute McDonald almost grabbed a second when he drove inches wide of the far past from 20 yards.
Brown came on for Fortune in the 68th minute to support McDonald from the
midfield but there was a hint of extra-time about proceedings as time slipped
away.
But with Brown driving Celtic forward, the Hoops went for the second goal and Maloney should have scored two minutes from the end when he was sent through by the Scotland midfielder but Gabulov brilliantly blocked.
Then in the final minute, Samaras took a long, searching Hinkel pass inside the box, weaved past three Dinamo defenders and slotted past Gabulov, before taking the acclaim of the small band of happy Hoops fans.
