Celtic’s Champions League Group F rivals RB Leipzig came back from the dead to rescue a point against 10-man Augsburg, despite being 3-0 down with under half an hour to go, in the Bundesliga yesterday.
Mergim Berisha put the home side in front ten minutes before half-time with a coolly-taken penalty, and Augsburg doubled their lead five minutes after the interval, taking advantage of some comical Leipzig marking with a Ermedin Demirovic free header from a corner.
Augsburg thought they had the game won after an hour when Ruben Vargas fired a beautifully-taken volley past Leipzig goalkeeper Janis Blaswich for 3-0, but two rapid-fire yellow cards for left-back Iago set up a scarely believable half-hour implosion for Enrico Maaßen’s team.
Andre Silva gave Leipzig hope with twenty minutes to go with his first goal of the season, a clever Christopher Nkunku free-kick cut the deficit going into injury time and the 90 minutes weren’t yet up before Hugo Novoa slid in the rebound from Silva’s saved shot to rescue an unlikely point for Marco Rose’s Leipzig.
In La Liga, Real Madrid required a late salvo to maintain their lead at the top of La Liga with a 3-1 win over struggling Sevilla.
Los Blancos took the lead after five minutes when some Vinicius Jnr magic gave Luka Modric a back post tap-in, but former Spurs winger Erik Lamela equalised after 54 minutes when the Brazilian was robbed of the ball in his own half.
However, Vinicius made amends when he unselfishly squared for Lucas Vasquez when through on goal with ten minutes to go, and Federico Valverde scored yet another stunner 90 seconds later to seal the points and take Madrid six points clear of Barcelona, who play Athletic Bilbao later today.
Rounding off the group, Shakhtar Donetsk had a weekend without a league fixture prior to their trip to Glasgow, but are sweating on the fitness of three players, including former Celtic winger Maryan Shved.
Celtic, of course, won a crazy 4-3 thriller at Tynecastle yesterday to extend their lead at the top of the table to four points, on a day when VAR took centre stage in the Scottish Premiership.
Tuesday is the penultimate round of fixtures for the four sides, with Group F rounding off on the 2nd of November when Celtic visit Madrid and Shakhtar host Leipzig.
In other news: Referee with recent Glasgow history confirmed for Celtic vs Shakhtar Donetsk
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