Celtic draw 2-2 with Atletico Madrid in thrilling Champions League encounter

Celtic earned their first point of the Champions League campaign with a hard-fought 2-2 draw against Atletico Madrid.

Brendan Rodgers’ side took the lead twice at Celtic Park but were pegged back by Atletico in a dramatic match that also saw the visitors reduced to ten men late in the second half.

Kyogo Furuhashi and Lusi Palma scored for the hosts, with Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata finding the net for the Spanish side.

The result leaves Celtic still at the bottom of their group but keeps alive their hopes of European football after Christmas, though they will face a tough task in the second half of the group stage.

Celtic enjoyed a dream start and were ahead after just four minutes. Kyogo collected the ball wide on the right and played a clever pass inside to Matt O’Riley, then raced into the box to collect the return ball and dink a clever finish past Jan Oblak and into the net.

The goal gave the home side even more belief and they went toe to toe with their more fancied opponents but were pegged back twenty minutes after the opener. Greg Taylor was judged to have fouled Nahuel Molina and a penalty was awarded.

Antoine Griezmann stepped up to take the spot kick but his effort was tipped on to the post by Joe Hart. The ball rebounded straight to the French forward though, and he made no mistake with his second attempt.

Celtic retook the lead just a few minutes later. Greg Taylor picked out Daizen Maeda with a perfect long-range pass and the winger looked up before hitting a powerful cutback across goal. Luis Palma controlled the ball instantly and fired a low shot back across goal and into the far corner of the net to put Celtic 2-1 up.

Atletico boss Diego Simeone made two changes at the break to try to rectify his side’s situation and saw reward on 53 minutes. Llorente delivered a targeted cross that was met by Alvaro Morata and his header bounced off the ground and past Joe Hart to level the score again.

The visitors had been shown a raft of yellow cards and paid the price for their indiscipline with just under ten minutes to go when Rodrigo de Paul picked up his second booking and was sent off.

Celtic pushed for a late winner against ten men, with substitute James Forrest putting a difficult chance over the bar