Steven Gerrard‘s first taste of the Old Firm Derby is quite sour.
Rangers were well-drilled in its visit to Celtic Park on Sunday, but Olivier Ntcham‘s 62nd minute goal extended Celtic’s unbeaten derby run into an eighth season.
The match was full of fouls, hard tackles, and struck cross bars, as both teams threatened the goal but Celtic controlled play.
The win moves Celtic to 3-1 on the season, three points back of leaders Hearts. Rangers are now seven points back of first.
Ntcham is a former Man City player, and capped off a tremendous counter attack to put Celtic in front. Tom Rogic started the play on the edge of the Celtic area, and both Odsonne Edouard and James Forrest played parts in setting up Ntcham.
Ryan Christie dove to win a free kick from Connor Goldson on the edge of the 18, but Allan McGregor made an outstanding save to deny Chris Griffith’s solid effort.
The Europa League has reached its final qualifying round, and teams are vying for spots in the Group Stage. It’s still a massive group of teams that are vying for 21 spots among the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen, and others who are already confirmed among the groups.
A number of lopsided scorelines have given teams a hefty advantage after leg number one, while other results are still very much in doubt.
Premier League side Burnley suffered a 3-1 defeat to Greek giants Olympiakos. 25-year-old midfielder Konstantinos Fortounis scored a pair, including the backbreaker from the penalty spot after Ben Gibson was sent off for a handball in the box that resulted in his second yellow card. At the time, the score was 2-1 with Chris Wood having scored for Burnley from the spot and former Nottingham Forest midfielder Andreas Bouchalakis but Olympiakos back in front.
La Liga side Sevilla pulled out a late 1-0 win over Czech club Sigma Olomouc thanks to an 84th minute goal from Pablo Sarabia on a brilliant through-ball from Andre Silva.
Zenit St. Petersburg put three past Norwegian club FK Molde – all in the final 19 minutes – to take a 3-1 first leg lead. Molde had gone in front just before halftime and held it past the 70-minute mark, but Russian international Artem Dyzuba leveled the score. New signing Anton Zabolotny put Zenit with 10 minutes to go, before defender Miha Mevlja put the game away in the 90th minute.
Swedish club Malmo wasted a 2-0 lead at home, slumping to a 2-2 draw against Danish side FC Midtjylland. 35-year-old Malmo captain Markus Rosenberg struck first in the 12th minute, before former Blackburn and Leeds striker Marcus Antonsson doubled the lead in the 24th minute.
Scottish side Celtic scored three minutes into its match against Lithuanian club FK Suduva, but couldn’t manage another as they drew 1-1. 22-year-old French youth international Olivier Ntcham opened the scoring on the road, with a bullet header off a brilliant curling cross from 19-year-old Michael Johnston. However, Suduva leveled things in the 13th minute via Ovidijus Verbickas who got his head on the end of a long-range free-kick.
Turkish club Besiktas drew 1-1 with Serbian club Partizan Belgrade in a weird match that featured both goals scored within a minute of each other early on that almost perfectly mirrored each other. Cape Verde international Ricardo Gomes gave Partizan the lead at home in the 14th minute on a back-post header, before 28-year-old Tolgay Arslan scored a minute later on a nearly identical header from the opposite flank.
French side Bordeaux, with manager Gus Poyet suspended, drew 0-0 with Belgian club KAA Genk and saw Jules Koundé sent off in added time. RB Leipzig was also held to a 0-0 draw on the road, despite a man advantage for nearly the entire match after Ukranian club Zorya Lugansk’s winger Bogdan Lednev was sent off in just the 16th minute. Italian club Atalanta also finished 0-0 with Danish club FC Copenhagen.
There was some talk that hot transfer market target Hakim Ziyech might sit out the first leg of Ajax’s UEFA Champions League second qualifying round versus SK Sturm Graz.
He played, and he scored. Now we wait to see whether cup-tying himself to the Dutch giants affects his season status.
Celtic 3-1 Rosenborg
Odsonne Edouard scored in each half as Celtic controlled the first leg in Glasgow, though it will be disappointed to give away a 16th minute away goal to Birger Meling. Former Man City youth Olivier Ntcham scored Celtic’s other goal.
Ajax 2-0 SK Sturm Graz
Hakim Ziyech and Lasse Schone scored for the Amsterdam set, Schone’s goal a rebound from his own missed penalty.
Ziyech had an out-of-this-world season for Ajax last season, and looks set to keep the standard.
1 – Hakim Ziyech (100 touches) had the most successful dribbles in Ajax v Sturm Graz (7), while no player in the game had more shots on target (2) or created more chances (3) than the playmaker. Showpiece. pic.twitter.com/awhVHQSPK4
Others, like Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, and Thomas Lemar, did not move at all.
Then there were the intra-league moves that happened or didn’t. As of post time, there are no new homes for Alexis Sanchez, Riyad Mahrez, and Diego Costa.
So who did move? Below are all the deals for each club via PremierLeague.com.
Brendan Rodgers‘ side beat FC Astana 5-0 in the first leg of their playoff last week at Celtic Park but the trip to Kazakhstan proved much trickier with Astana leading 4-1 late in the game which had pulled the score back to 6-4 on aggregate.
However, Scott Sinclair had scored a priceless away goal to make it 1-1 at half time and despite a late flurry of goals for the hosts Olivier Ntcham scored a deflected effort and Leigh Griffiths wrapped things up late on as Celtic lost 4-3 on the night but went through 8-4 on aggregate.
Last season the Scottish champions went out in the UCL group stage after being drawn with Manchester City, Barcelona and Borussia Monchengladbach and will be hoping for a kinder draw this time around.
RESULT: Astana 4-3 Celtic (agg: 4-8) @celticfc reach the group stage after the highest-scoring aggregate match in #UCL play-off history! 👏 pic.twitter.com/cNLlusd3vp
