lung heroics help astra hold celtic published: thursday 6 november 2014, 21.25cet fc astra giurgiu 1-1 celtic fc a string of saves from goalkeeper silviu lung helped the romanian side recover to deny the hoops a win in their 300th match in uefa competition.
• substitute william amorim's curler earns astra share of the spoils • stefan johansen had earlier opened scoring for celtic • home keeper silviu lung shines; captain vincent laban sent off • celtic make 300th uefa competition appearance on 127th birthday • next games: astra v dinamo zagreb, celtic v salzburg (27 november)
goalkeeper silviu lung was the hero as fc astra giurgiu recovered to deny celtic fc both a win and early progress to the knockout stage in a 1-1 draw.
contesting their 300th uefa competition match, celtic began in earnest and got their first look at the hosts' no1 when a left-wing cross teed up a mikael lustig snapshot. reacting superbly, lung changed direction to make a fine airborne save. craig gordon then matched lung's efforts at the other end, flying high to his left to prevent seidu yahaya's corruscating drive finding the net.
there was nothing lung could do about stefan johansen's 32nd-minute opener. charlie mulgrew's free-kick came back off the defensive wall and johansen's deflected follow-up flew into lung's top-right corner.
mulgrew himself was then denied by the astra custodian on the cusp of half-time. the defender would surely have sealed three points had his bouncing effort not been tipped onto the post by the in-form lung, but that proved a crucial stop. on 79 minutes, william amorim's wonderful effort from the left side of the area curled over a helpless gordon and dropped inside his left upright.
lung continued to prove decisive as the game neared a close, stretching to stifle leigh griffiths after the celtic substitute had attempted to skip around him. astra captain vincent laban received a straight red card in added time, but the hosts held on for a point.
