Uefa Champions League/ Celtic 1 Spartak Moscow 1 (AET. Aggregate 2-2. Celtic win 4-3 on penalties): Celtic joined their Old Firm rivals, Rangers, in the group stages of the Champions League last night, but only after being pushed to a tense penalty shoot-out by Spartak Moscow.

Shunsuke Nakamura missed his spot-kick in the shoot-out, but Artur Boruc saved two penalties to hand Celtic a £10 million windfall for entering the group stage.

Spartak, who had Martin Stranzl sent off in the closing minutes, had dominated for long spells but Celtic recovered from early lethargy to create and spurn a series of opportunities. Nakamura was the most guilty offender, firing straight at the Spartak goalkeeper on two occasions in the final 23 minutes.

The Moscow side had arrived in Glasgow's east end with the unenviable task of breaching a Celtic defence which had not conceded a home goal in European competition since December 2004. Celtic's pre-match advantage of an away goal was a perilous one, though; a matter emphasised by the Russians' bullish start.

Welliton should have handed the visitors a 15th-minute lead but the Brazilian took a clumsy touch when clean through on Boruc. Celtic launched the first meaningful attack of the match moments later as Scott McDonald slipped a shot wide of the Spartak goal. That effort only served to rouse Spartak further, a combination of Boruc and Lee Naylor required to scramble Dmitri Torbinsky's effort from the Celtic goal-line.

Strachan's men were often woefully exposed in defence, particularly on the flanks, during a gripping first half and such shortcomings almost proved fatal with 25 minutes played as a sprawling Gary Caldwell was adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area when blocking Welliton's shot. Roman Pavlyuchenko, however, blasted the resultant spot-kick against Boruc's right-hand post.

Celtic capitalised on the profligacy within 60 seconds as McDonald notched his first goal in green and white, the Australian supplying a cool finish from 12 yards after Spartak's Roman Shishkin had miscued a clearance into his path.

The delirious home support were promptly silenced, though, when Pavlyuchenko atoned for his earlier error by firing home at the back post from a Mozart corner, right on half-time.

The match dropped in tempo after the interval and became littered with errors. McDonald should have handed the hosts a crucial edge 11 minutes from time but shot tamely. Spartak's Stranzl received a red card with five minutes to play for a late tackle on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, who missed an extra-time penalty.

• Guardian Service

CELTIC: Boruc, Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor, Nakamura, Scott Brown, Donati, McGeady, McDonald, Vennegoor of Hesselink. Subs: Mark Brown, Zurawski, Hartley, Killen, Riordan, Sno, O'Dea.

SPARTAK MOSCOW: Pletikosa, Soava, Stranzl, Kovac, Shishkin, Mozart, Torbinsky, Titov, Bystrov, Welliton, Pavluchenko. Subs: Homich, Dedura, Geder, Kalinichenko, Boyarintsev, Sabitov, Dzjuba.

Referee: Roberto Rosetti(Italy)