CLPlay-Offs: Karagandy 2-0 Celtic | PSV 1-1 AC Milan

Shakhter Karagandy 2-0 Celtic

Celtic slipped to a shock defeat in their Champions League qualifying playoff in Kazakhstan, losing 2-0 and having a mountain to climb if they wish to progress to the group stage of the competition. Andrei Finonchenko put the Kazakh team ahead in the 12th minute. Gediminas Vicius delivered a freakishly long throw in which was headed on into the area by Vasiljevic. Finonchenko latched onto it to nudge the ball past Celtic keeper Fraser Forster. Dutchman Virgil van Dijk threatened to put Celtic ahead twice, but failed to finish both his chances. Commons also saw his chance disallowed, after his shot ricocheted down off the bar and bounce off the goal-line. The referee judged that the ball had not crossed over the line. Sergey Khizhnichenko doubled the lead in the 77th minute, managing to get his head on the end of Vicius' errant shot and leaving Celtic mulling over the thought that they might be relegated to the Europa League if they can't overturn the deficit.

PSV 1-1 AC Milan

PSV Eindhoven managed to give themselves a lifeline going into the second-leg of their Champions League play-off game against AC Milan, pulling back a goal to level the game after going one down a quarter of an hour into the match. Milan took the lead in the 15th minute when Ignazio Abate crossed the ball in from the right and Stephan El Shaarawy aimed his powerful header past Jeroen Zoet. In the opening moments of the second-half El Shaarawy had two more chances but could not finish them. PSV got themselves back in the game just after the hour mark. Jeffrey Bruma hit a splendid shot, which Christian Abbiati fumbled, and Tim Matavz reacted quickest to nod the ball in the back of the net. In the dying minutes of the game, defender Karim Rekik had a chance to be PSV's hero of the night. Wijnaldum delivered an outstanding cross into the area, only for Rekik to mistime his header. The return fixture on August 28th at the San Siro promises to be an exciting game.