Celtic v Kairat Almaty: nil-nil draw in first leg of Champions League play-off

Celtic have been held to a goalless draw by a stubborn Kairat Almaty side at Parkhead in the first-leg of their Champions League play-off.

The 0-0 result is a blow to the Hoops’ chances of reaching the league phase of Europe’s top competition with the tie now on a knife-edge ahead of their trip to Kazakhstan next week.

It wasn’t a vintage European night at Celtic Park by any stretch of the imagination, and fans loudly voiced their displeasure with chants of “sack the board” heard throughout the game and after the final whistle.

It comes after a summer of discontent among supporters who believe there has been a lack of signings, particularly in the form of replacements for the likes of Nicolas Kuhn, who signed for Como, and Kyogo Furuhashi, who departed in January.

After the game, captain Callum McGregor urged unity and said “we have to stick together”, but admitted the squad was in need of some extra quality.

Celtic dominated possession for most of the game, particularly in the second half, but failed to create many real chances in what was a disappointing night for the Scottish champions.

A James Forrest strike early in the second half and Daizen Maeda’s injury-time effort were their only shots on target in the game.

Maeda also had a half-chance in the first half, and Liam Scales came close with a header, but other than that, chances were few and far between.

The Hoops went into the game as heavy favourites, but if anyone inside Celtic Park thought the Kazakhstan champions were going to be an easy touch, then they were given an early wake-up call with the away side having the best of the early chances.

The visitors looked dangerous in possession and even had the ball in the net after just ten minutes.

The goal was ruled out for offside, but it showed that Kairat hadn’t arrived in Glasgow just to make up the numbers and had league phase aspirations of their own.

Brendan Rodgers’ plans then suffered a blow when Alistair Johnston suffered an injury and had to be taken off on the half-hour mark.

The Canada international right-back was replaced by Anthony Ralston.

Celtic’s first real chance fell to Maeda after he played a one-two with Benjamin Nygren and was put through inside the box, but the goalkeeper managed to clear the danger wide for a corner.

Rodgers made another change at half-time when he replaced Adam Idah with Yang and moved Maeda through the middle.

The South Korea winger was involved right away as Celtic nearly got themselves in front through James Forrest who forced a great save from Kairat goalkeeper Aleksandr Zarutskiy just 20 seconds after the restart.

The Hoops looked a lot more lively in the early stages of the second half as they put pressure on the visitors’ backline and pushed for the crucial opening goal.

But as the game reached the last 25 minutes, it remained goalless, and the crowd started to get audibly frustrated, with chants of ‘sack the board’ circling the stadium on a couple of occasions.

Liam Scales then came close with a header from an Arne Engels corner, but the ball flew just over the bar.

It was now all Celtic as they dominated possession and looked for an opening as the Kairat team were falling deeper and deeper.

But they failed to create any more real chances, until the fifth minute of injury time when Maeda raced through one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but his tame shot was well saved, and it ended 0-0.

Celtic now face a daunting 7,000-mile trip to the Chinese border for the away leg next Tuesday.