Boyata's late goal gives Celtic some breathing space
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Scottish champions Celtic are in danger of failing to reach the lucrative group stage of the UEFA Champions League for a second successive season despite Dedryck Boyata's late goal giving them a 1-0 home win over Azerbaijani side Qarabag in their third qualifying round first leg clash on Wednesday.
Boyata's header from Kris Commons' cross eight minutes from time saved the hosts' blushes and gives them a slight advantage to take to Baku next week and hope of progressing to the play-off round for the group stage.
However, the Azerbaijani side -- who beat eventual UEFA Europa League finalists Dnipro in a group stage game last term as well as holding Inter Milan to a 0-0 draw -- showed enough in restricting Celtic to only a handful of opportunities that they can claim a famous scalp.
Another former winner of Europe's premier club competition Ajax grabbed what on the face of it was a respectable 2-2 draw away at Rapid Vienna but will be kicking themselves it wasn't a better result.
A double by midfielder Davy Klaassen gave them a 2-0 lead by half-time. Rapid's Florain Kainz reduced the arrears shortly after the restart in the second-half but the hosts' hopes looked to have suffered a terminal blow when Stefan Scwab was given a straight red just before the hour mark for a foul on Jairo Riedewald.
Despite that they levelled with 17 minutes remaining, Slovenian forward Robert Beric firing home to at least send them to Amsterdam on level terms.