Under the circumstances AEK did a fantastic job at the very atmospheric, jam packed Celtic Park.

By George Angelidis

A wild atmosphere like this, and losing a starter, Lucas Boye from injury during warmups means trouble for a team that is playing their first competitive match of the season with a new coach let me mind you.

Niklas Hult was the replacement in the starting lineup, which meant the Helder Lopes would play just in front of Hult on the left. A defensive minded move, but an understandable one in an away European match. The Scots would open the scoring in the 17th minute after Callum McGregor was able to get a shot off from a difficult angle beating Barkas.

AEK would answer in the most crucial moment of the match thus far, on the stroke of half. Klonaridis made no mistake and smashed home a close range effort after excellent work from Lopes digging out a cross from a long ball which seemed to be over hit.

Things didn’t get much easier for AEK in the second half as Galanopoulos was given two yellow cards in the span of 8 minutes from the Italian referee. The second, was very questionable to say the least. The introduction of Alef brang stability to the team and we defended and defended expertly to keep this massive result for the return leg in Athens. Celtic pushed and tried but couldn’t beat Barkas for the second time. Final score in Celtic Park, Celtic 1-1 AEK, all to play for in 6 days time…