CELTIC will face Kairat Almaty in the Champions League play-off first leg at Parkhead a week tomorrow.
The Kazakhstan outfit won through 4-3 on penalty-kicks after a nail-biting finish in a game that see-sawed throughout the two hours of action in the Slovakian capital before ending in a 1-1 aggregate stalemate.
A 30th-minute goal from Robert Mak wiped out the visitors’ 1-0 lead from last week’s opening tie to push the third round qualifying encounter into extra-time.
David Strelec, who has been linked with the Hoops in the past, had an opportunity to put Slovan in front in the third minute of the extra period, but his effort from six yards following a superb cross from the right carried wide of the target.
The highly-rated frontman was substituted before the game was settled on spot-kicks.
Slovan squandered two penalties – one saved by the keeper and another wastefully sent wide of the post – as Kairat kept their nerve to get through to the £40million winner-takes-all meeting with Brendan Rodgers’ side.
The second leg will be in Almaty on Tuesday August 26.
