Soccer

Celtic surrender lead twice to draw 2-2 with Salzburg

Mubarak Wakaso on Hoops debut in Europa League Group D opener in Austria

Salzburg’s Martin Hinteregger challenges Celtic’s Anthony Stokes as their teams fought to a draw. Photograph: AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson
Salzburg’s Martin Hinteregger challenges Celtic’s Anthony Stokes as their teams fought to a draw. Photograph: AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson
Thu Sept 18 2014 - 22:25

FC Salzburg 2 Celtic 2

Celtic twice surrendered the lead to draw 2-2 with Salzburg in their thrilling Europa League Group D opener in Austria.

Mubarak Wakaso scored 14 minutes into his Hoops debut but Brazilian striker Alan levelled 10 minutes from the break with a shot from the edge of the box which took a marked deflection off Efe Ambrose before looping over Craig Gordon.

On the hour mark, Hoops captain Scott Brown, playing only his second game of the season after recovering from a hamstring injury, sent in a drive from outside the box which hit Andre Ramalho and the ball spun into the net.

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Gordon made several saves, a couple of them brilliant, to keep the home side at bay but he had no chance in the 77th minute with skipper Jonatan Soriano’s 25-yard free-kick which flew high into the top corner.

However, manager Ronny Deila will probably see this as a decent result against the top seeds as he prepares to face Dinamo Zagreb next month with Romanian outfit FC Astra also in the section.

Salzburg’s stadium was less than half-full at kick-off with the few hundred Hoops fans who made the trip seeing Wakaso for the first time.