Champions League: Celtic 3-2 Malmo

Jo Inge Berget's late second goal changed the complexion of the tie

A late Jo Inge Berget strike left Celtic's Champions League play-off with Malmo precariously balanced after the first leg of their tie.

A double from Leigh Griffiths and Nir Bitton's header looked like giving Celtic a foothold in the group stage.

Berget - brought to Celtic by Ronny Deila on loan last summer - had already struck one away goal to make it 2-1.

But his second, with virtually the last kick of the ball deep in stoppage time, gave the Swedes a huge boost.

Celtic will probably have to avoid defeat in Sweden if they are to return to the group stage of European football's elite competition.

A year ago they had slumped out of the Champions League during the play-off stage - and bizarrely did so not once but twice.

They were given a reprieve after defeat by Legia Warsaw, who fielded an ineligible player, but Deila's Celtic could not find a way past Maribor.

Bitton headed home from Stefan Johansen's corner to put Celtic two up

Twelve months on they look a different beast altogether, more in tune with their manager's desires and demands.

Certainly they began the match with an intensity that Malmo found impossible to live with, hounding their opponents and driven on by a raucous support that greeted Griffiths's opening goal with a huge roar.

Stuart Armstrong left Malmo defenders in his wake as he drove in from the left to lay the ball off for Stefan Johansen.

The Norwegian's first-time ball picked out the run of Griffiths perfectly and the striker coolly side-footed past the exposed Johan Wiland.

It was the first time Griffiths had been preferred in attack to Nadir Ciftci in the Champions League this season and it looked like the right call by Deila.

The furious tempo continued and when Johansen swung in a pinpoint corner for Bitton to head in from close range, Celtic looked as though they could kill off the tie in the first half.

They might have done so but Johansen fired straight at the keeper, Griffiths found the side-netting and Armstrong arrowed a shot a foot or so away from the top corner.

Griffiths marked his first European start of the season with two goals

But scattered among those efforts, occasional lapses in concentration crept in, with Craig Gordon required to make an excellent one-handed stop to deny Vladimir Rodic.

Celtic failed to heed the warning though, and Berget punished a stray Scott Brown header by thundering a shot past Gordon from a tight angle.

The winger had previously been just as peripheral to most of the evening's action as he had during his six months as a Celtic player.

But just as Berget and Malmo grew in confidence, they were sucker-punched by a second from Griffiths.

Anton Tinnerholm failed to deal with a deep cross, knocking it into the air, allowing the stronger and more forceful Griffiths to climb above him to loop a header over Wiland and in off the far post.

That was not the end to the drama, though, as Berget pounced on a loose ball six yards out to hammer high into the net - ensuring the evening ended on a low for Celtic and setting up a tense evening in Malmo on Tuesday.