Europa League round-up:Celtic's Europa League hopes were in the balance following their narrow 1-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid in their penultimate Group I game at Parkhead. An Arda Turan strike in the 29th minute was enough to secure the Spanish club qualification with 10 points.
The Hoops have to beat Udinese in their last group fixture in Italy on December 15th to leapfrog the Italian club into second place and with a poor away record in Europe, their task is uphill to say the least.
Celtic had more than held their own against Atletico until the Turkey international picked up a Daniel Majstorovic clearance from Diego’s corner 20 yards from goal and fired back in past Fraser Forster.
Substitute Gary Hooper, an interval replacement for Victor Wanyama, had the ball in the net after the break only to see it chalked off with an Anthony Stokes handball apparently the reason.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon had no problem with his side’s performance or the goal they conceded. Lennon told ESPN: “I’m very pleased with the team, I thought we deserved a lot more out of the game than what we got. I’m delighted with the performance, just little things we can tidy up on.
“Their goalkeeper kept them in it in the first half, he made two or three world-class saves. We got done by a very good strike. We defended the corner well and the guy has come on and hit it. I don’t think Fraser has seen it until late so I can’t be too critical.
“Sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say ‘Good goal’. A lot of our play was very, very good. I thought Kayal and Samaras were exceptional.”
Tottenhamwere left with a very slim chance of making the second round after they were beaten 2-1 by 10-man PAOK Salonika on a controversial night at White Hart Lane.
Sloppy marking from Sebastien Bassong allowed Dimitris Salpingidis and Stefanos Athanasiadis to give the Greeks a 2-0 lead after 13 minutes but Spurs pulled one back with a Luka Modric penalty after Konstantinos Stafylidis was dismissed for handball on the line.
Tottenham thought they had equalised through Jermain Defoe in the second half, but referee Bas Nijhuis controversially disallowed the striker’s goal for a foul on Pablo Contreras.
Birminghampaid the price for Nikola Zigic's early saved penalty as a 1-0 defeat in Braga left them facing an uphill battle in their bid to progress to the knockout stages.
The Serbian saw his 11th-minute spot-kick saved by goalkeeper Quim and the Portuguese hosts went on to claim victory thanks to a touch of City misfortune as Hugo Viana’s 50th-minute strike took a huge deflection off Curtis Davies.
The result saw Braga qualify for the last 32 from a tight Group H based on their head-to-head record and a 3-1 victory at St Andrew’s on matchday one, while Club Brugge’s dramatic fight back to claim a 4-3 victory over bottom club Maribor also sent them three points clear of City.
It left Blues needing to defeat Maribor in the final round of fixtures and hope Brugge and Braga do not play out a draw which would see the Belgium side through.
