Celts Charachter Comes Through

Celtic made an impressive recovery from a bizarre own goal to claim a vital Europa League point against Rennes in France to keep the hopes of qualification to the knock out stages alive.

Cha Du-Ri's misplaced passback handed Rennes the lead on the half-hour mark, moments after Rennes goalkeeper Benoit Costil had denied Anthony Stokes who should have opted for placement over power on his shot.

But Joe Ledley's header put the Hoops level in the match on 70 minutes.

Charlie Mulgrew who had yet another fine game came close with a free-kick for the visitors and Youssouf Hadji's acrobatic shot was briliantly saved by Celtic's Fraser Forster who arguably was man of the match this evening.

Kader Mangane headed wide for the home side and Ki Sung-Yung's drive was comfortably held by Rennes goalkeeper Benoit Costil in the early exchanges.

An excellent opportunity presented itself to the visitors in the 25th minute as Anthony Stokes escaped his marker to open up a shooting chance.
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The striker's effort was on target but Costil was able to push the ball over the crossbar.
Celtic defender Cha Du-Ri Cha unintentionally gave Rennes the lead in the first half

And the Bhoys were soon paying the price for that miss and a complete misunderstanding in their own defence as Rennes were gifted the opening goal of the game.

Cha mopped up a simple long ball under no pressure and tried to pass the ball back to his goalkeeper.

But Forster did not seem to be expecting the defender's intervention and the ball trickled past him into the net.

The hosts looked for a quick second and Alexander Tettey's back-post cross was headed over by Youssouf Hadji.

Chris Mavinga played an excellent one-two with Julien Feret to go through on Forster's goal early in the second half but the keeper's sizeable frame did enough to block the full-back's shot.

Stokes had another chance after being picked out in the box by Beram Kayal but Costil again made the save when Stokes possibly could have finished better.

Cha who was looking to redeem himself then got in behind the Rennes defence and forced a save from Costil and the ball ran into the part of Ki.

The South Korean tried to place the ball into the gaping goal but his effort cleared the crossbar.

But the Bhoys pressed on and were soon level as Mulgrew's superb inswinging free-kick was flicked into the net by the head of Ledley.

Substitute Jonathan Pitroipa was inches away from converting Jires Ekoko's cross as Rennes looked to regain the lead and Mulgrew swerved his next free-kick just wide of the home goal.

A stunning overhead kick by Hadji was matched by Forster's terrific save after the Rennes striker pounced on a loose high ball.

And Forster made another fine block in injury time as Pitroipa was denied after having latched on to a long ball.

RENNES (4-1-3-1-2): Costil; Jebbour, Mangane, Kana-Biyik, Mavinga (Theophile-Catherine 76); Tettey; Pajot, Brahimi (Pitroipa 58), Feret; Boukari (Kembo-Ekoko 58), Hadji
Subs not used: Diallo, Dalmat, Montano, Doumbia

CELTIC (4-2-3-1): Forster; Matthews, Loovens, Mulgrew, Ledley; Kayal, Wanyama; Cha, Ki (Bangura 89), Forrest; Stokes
Subs not used: Zaluska, Majstorovic, Wilson, McCourt, George, McGregor

Huddletalk official man of the match: Fraser Forster