A piece of individual brilliance from Daizen Maeda earned Celtic a Champions League point after an incredible blunder from Cameron Carter-Vickers gifted Club Brugge the lead at Parkhead.
There was little surprise that Brugge took the lead in the 26th minute but the manner of the goal was a total shock.
Nicolas Kuhn was forced into his own box as Brugge pressed and laid the ball off for Carter-Vickers, who passed back without looking. Kasper Schmeichel was at the opposite side of his goal to where the defender guessed and the ball rolled into the corner of the net.
Celtic struggled to make inroads until Maeda took centre stage on the hour mark. The wide player’s Cruyff turn set up the chance to shoot from a tight angle and he curled in off the post.
Brugge had a goal disallowed before Celtic finished the game on top as they moved on to eight points ahead of their trip to Croatia to face Dinamo Zagreb on December 10.
“Mistakes happen and it was just unfortunate,” said Celtic boss Brendan Rogers. “He’s played that pass a million times and it’s gone back and then we’ve been able to play forward.
“But he’s a really, really tough character. He’s a great guy, he picked himself up. He was really strong and aggressive again in the game and got on with it and had a real bravery in the second half, because he was the one carrying the ball forward for us to start the attack.”
Elsewhere in the Champions League, Borussia Dortmund moved into the top eight with 3-0 win at Dinamo Zagreb, where English forward Jamie Gittens, Ramy Bensebaini and Serhou Guirassy got on the scoresheet.
Monaco dropped to eighth after suffering their first loss of the league phase, 3-2 at home to Benfica.
Despite having Wilfried Singo sent off just prior to the hour mark, the French side took the lead for a second time via Soungoutou Magassa in the 67th minute, only for late goals from Arthur Cabral and Zeki Amdouni to give Benfica all three points.
Lille, in 12th, have the same amount of points as Monaco and Villa thanks to a 2-1 win at Bologna, with Ngal’Ayel Mukau notching a brace.
PSV Eindhoven, now 18th, produced a dramatic late turnaround to beat 10-man Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2 at home.
The visitors led 2-0 through Danylo Sikan and Oleksandr Zubkov before having Pedrinho sent off in the 69th minute, and PSV then hit back with three goals in the closing stages, Malik Tilman scoring in the 87th and 90th and Ricardo Pepi then notching the winner in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
Red Star Belgrade registered their first win of the league phase by thrashing Stuttgart 5-1, as did Sturm Graz, beating Girona 1-0.
PA
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