Libbra leaves league in the balance

Celtic 1 Hibernian 1

Celtic 1 Hibernian 1

New signing Marc Libbra came off the bench to grab a late equaliser for Hibernian to give them - and Rangers - a glimmer of hope in the race for the Premier League title.

Johan Mjallby's first-half strike looked like giving Celtic the points and effectively the championship.

But, on his debut, the Frenchman grabbed a late equaliser to keep them 14 points behind Martin O'Neill's men while Rangers are now 13 points adrift with a game in hand.

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Russell Latapy and Mixu Paatelainen were unavailable for the visitors,Celtic too were weakened with the absence the injured Joos Valgaeren and Bobby Petta.

Hibs did show some promise on the break but Celtic appeared the most likely side to open the scoring. And so it proved in the 23rd minute when Johan Mjallby became the unlikely man to grab the Celtic goal.

Henrik Larsson rose to head Thompson's corner towards the goal, but John O'Neil was on the goal-line to deny him, but his Swedish team-mate made no mistake to fire home from close range.

The visitors began to come more into the game and they gave Celtic a warning in the 37th minute as the home side were caught ball watching.

The visitors continued to grow in confidence in the second half, but despite all their hard work they were still unable to trouble Douglas in the Celtic goal.

Hibernian defender Gary Smith was the first man to receive a yellow card in the 66th minute when he pulled down Sutton and the pressure was beginning to tell.

The visitors needed some spark from somewhere and Hibs' manager Alex McLeish brought on new signing Libbra for his debut in place of the hard-working Lehmann.

And in the 85th minute the home side paid for their missed chances when Libbra capitalised on some hesitancy in the Celtic defence to cooly slot the ball under Douglas from close range and give his side a share of the points. -PA-