Champions League AC Milan 1 Celtic 0 After extra time. Milan win 1-0 on aggregateA brilliant individual goal by Kaka ended Celtic's Champions League campaign last night after the Scottish champions had forced extra-time.

Belligerence rather than brilliance enabled Gordon Strachan's team to hold Milan for 98 minutes here but their resistance was broken when Kaka carried the ball almost from halfway before accelerating into the penalty area and striking a low shot through the legs of the goalkeeper Artur Boruc.

Celtic's alarmingly poor away record - they had failed to win in any of 12 previous Champions League trips abroad - proved a pre-match concern for almost everyone associated with the club. Apart from their manager, who had stressed the relative infancy of his squad at this level might ensure the players were not haunted by past experiences.

The visitors' official ticket allocation had been cut to 4,850 as a consequence of the Sicilian tragedy but at least double that number were in attendance. Thankfully for the authorities, the travelling support remained in areas in which there were no Milan followers.

Strachan had opted for the brawn of Jiri Jarosik over the pace of Kenny Miller to support Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink in attack. It almost paid dividends inside six minutes, Jarosik close to winning a penalty as Paulo Maldini used his hands to block his angled shot.

Two minutes earlier Boruc had made a spectacular diving save to halt a Kaka effort.

The visitors had made the surprising choice not to train at the San Siro on Tuesday evening, a decision which raised even more eyebrows than it normally would given the playing surface there is only three weeks old.

An afternoon deluge of rain rendered conditions far from perfect but Milan came within a saving Lee Naylor tackle of opening the scoring midway through the opening period after a delightful move involving Kaka and Clarence Seedorf; Filippo Inaghi was on hand to score prior to Naylor's crucial intervention.

Celtic held their own for the remainder of the 45 minutes, without demonstrating the guile necessary to realise their dreams of an away goal.

There were 21 fouls in the first-half, an illustration of the fraught nature of proceedings, and there was seldom time to draw breath after the re-start.

Celtic, hitherto reluctant to flood forward in attack, appeared to sense fragility in Milan but adrenalin can often prove dangerous.

Inzaghi fired a half-volley inches wide of Boruc's upright in serving notice that the hosts retained genuine aspirations of being crowned European Champions for a seventh time.

Naylor's 55th-minute foul on the Milan striker, given as a free-kick, should in fact have resulted in a penalty as the defender tugged Inzaghi just inside Celtic's penalty area.

Boruc saved smartly from Maldini and Kaka rattled a shot off the crossbar as Milan grew frantic. No goal was forthcoming though, as Strachan's men held on for extra-time.

Guardian Service

AC MILAN: Dida, Oddo (Simic, 116 mins), Bonera, Maldini, Jankulovski,Gattuso (Brocchi 79), Pirlo, Ambrosini, Seedorf, Kaka,Inzaghi (Gilardino 73). Subs not used: Kalac, Favalli, Gourcuff, Oliveira. Booked: Ambrosini.

CELTIC: Boruc, Telfer, McManus, O'Dea, Naylor,Nakamura (Miller 106), Lennon, Sno (Beattie 97), McGeady, Jarosik (Gravesen 62), Vennegoor of Hesselink. Subs not used: Brown, Wilson, Kennedy, Riordan. Booked: McManus, Naylor, McGeady, Lennon.

Referee: Konrad Plautz (Austria).