Celtic Advance In Champions League On Late Goal, Avenge Murdered Sheep

Scottish soccer club Celtic were home to Kazakh side Shakhter Karagandy today in the second leg of the Champions League playoff round. After sacrificing a sheep, Shakhter beat Celtic 2-0 last week, and were the favorites to make it to the Champions League group stage. To advance on aggregate, Celtic would probably have to win by two goals to a team that just beat them pretty comfortably. There was hope for the Scots, though: Shakhter elected not to sacrifice more livestock today. We know what happened next.

Skipping to the end, Celtic scored in the second minute of injury time to get the win on a great goal. Celtic's Anthony Stokes received the ball on the left side of the pitch, wove through three scared/tired/lounging/sleeping/betting/bad Shakhter defenders before cutting a perfect ball back for James Forrest, who roofed the goal to send Glasgow into raptures. It's seen above. But maybe even more impressive is how Celtic scrapped back from two goals down to put themselves in position to nab the group stage berth.

Just before the whistle of a heated first half, Celtic forward Georgios Samaras picked his way along the top of the box about 25 yards from goal. When Shakhter players began to collapse, midfielder Kris Commons took the ball off Samaras. Commons lost his defenders, and when he saw he had daylight, didn't waste time. He took one touch to line up, then ripped an absolute banger into the lower corner of the net. It was an incredible finish that gave the home side all of the momentum going into halftime.

Just over two minutes into the second half, Celtic struck again to pull level. Celtic pressed again, and when Shakhter cleared, Michael Lustig struck a volley low that skipped past the visiting defenders and, miraculously, into the feet of Samaras standing just onside. He controlled the hard shot with a spectacular first touch, and calmly finished above the onrushing keeper's head to equalize.

Listen to that crowd. Chills. Celtic had a whole half to score the winner, but it didn't come until the 92nd. Incredible match, and now Celtic's in the Champions League. If you're Scottish, or not Kazakh, go black out.