Thursday, October 2, 2014

Celtic 1-0 Dinamo Zagreb: Gordon stars as hosts cling on for win

Kris Commons got the only goal of the game after just five minutes but the Croatian champions came back into contention strongly in the second half of their Europa League match
Celtic got their first win of the Europa League group stage but had goalkeeper Craig Gordon to thank that they held off Dinamo Zagreb in a 1-0 victory.

The Scots wasted no time in establishing an advantage as Kris Commons rocked the visitors in the sixth minute. Combining with Anthony Stokes on the left-hand side, the midfielder slipped a diagonal shot past Eduardo in the Dinamo goal from 12 yards.

Though Celtic settled into control after that goal, the away side were not without threat. Wilson Eduardo should have hit the target when he met a cross from the right flank with his head just before the 20-minute mark.

Commons was soon kicking himself for not having a second, however. The visiting keeper, getting too clever as he received a backpass under pressure from two Celtic players, miscontrolled and put it on a plate for the Scotland international, whose surprise got the better of him as his instinctive scuff at goal went wayward.

Dinamo were far from out of it and, after the second half, Wilson Eduardo had time to think about his shot as Dinamo broke suddenly from a defensive lapse, free in the box with only Gordon to beat. His effort was on target but Gordon leapt to his right to divert it away, bailing out Ronny Deila's men.

The Croatian side were becoming the more dominant as they pushed hard for an equaliser, though Gordon remained on top form, reacting quickly more than once to punch away dangerous crosses.

In the 68th minute, he yet again came to Celtic's rescue as he dived low to his right to keep out a strong Marcelo Brozovic effort.

From then on, the Scots were able to sap away Dinamo's momentum in the later stages before surviving a slightly panicky finish and held on to go to four points from two games in Group D.

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