Brendan Rodgers’s Celtic side were denied a first-leg win in Lithuania.
Celtic have been held to a 1-1 draw away to Suduva in the first leg of their Europa League playoff.
Brendan Rodgers’s side were big favourites to draw first blood and take a healthy aggregate lead into next week’s second leg at Parkhead.
But the Lithuanian minnows denied the stuttering Hoops and kept alive their hopes of reaching the group stages following a spirited draw.
Celtic got off to an ideal start when Olivier Ntcham opened the scoring inside three minutes, but Ovidijus Verbickas equalised for the hosts just 10 minutes later.
Craig Gordon ventured off his line for the equaliser and club legend Chris Sutton believes the veteran goalkeeper was partially culpable for the goal.
It’s clear that Rodgers’s side are nowhere near their best this season as of yet.
They have already been dumped out of the Champions League, hence their participation in Europe’s secondary competition, and a 1-0 defeat away to Hearts is testament to their slow start, but reaching the Europa League might settle them down somewhat for the remainder of the season.
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