Celtic belted by Braga

The home side had been on top when Alan Silva converted a 25th-minute penalty after South Korean international Ki Sung-Yeung blocked a cross in the box with his arm.

Braga doubled its lead when Nigerian defender Uwa Elderson Echiejile headed in a corner before Brazilian substitute Nascimento Matheus scored a sensational free-kick from 35 yards in the 88th minute to leave Celtic with a mountain to climb at Parkhead in the return leg next week.

Braga won all but one game and conceded just six times at home in its run to second place in the Portuguese league last season and never really looked like losing a goal to the Old Firm giant, which faces crashing out of Europe before its domestic season has even begun.

Celtic handed starts to new boys Joe Ledley, Efrain Juarez, Cha Du-Ri and Charlie Mulgrew while Irish international Aiden McGeady wasn't even named amongst the substitutes.

The Scottish side was presented with the first chance of the match early on when Georgios Samaras was fouled 30 yards out but Ki blasted the free-kick high over the bar.

Brazilian Alan was pulling the strings for Braga in midfield and threaded a ball through the middle for fellow countryman Lima but Zaluska was off his line early to snub out the danger.

Shaun Maloney's cross was acrobatically cut out by Pinheiro Moises as Samaras looked to connect with it just seconds before Paolo Cesar came close to giving Braga the lead. The Brazilian cut in from the right before unleashing a vicious low shot which Lukasz Zaluska did well to block with Andres Madrid blazing the follow-up well over.

Braga was handed the lead in the 25th minute when Ki gave away a penalty when he was adjudged to have blocked a cross from the right with his arm.

Alan confidently sent his spot-kick high into the top right hand corner of the net, giving Polish keeper Zaluska no chance.

The home side could have been two up almost straight from the restart when Cesar set up Leandro Salino who shot wide from just inside the box.

Celtic looked more composed in the second-half and began to dominate midfield without creating any clear cut chances.

Braga had been forced to hand keeper Mario Felgueiras a two-week contract after releasing him, in order to cover for injured duo Quim and Artur Moreas but he didn't have a save to make as Celtic failed to test him.

Good work from Andreas Madrid set up Alan who forced Zaluska into conceding a corner from which Braga doubled their lead in the 76th minute.

Substitute Matheus sent in a corner which was missed by several Celtic players before Elderson headed past Zaluska.

Things got worse for Celtic just before the whistle when Matheus sent a powerful, swerving free-kick over the out-stretched hand of Zaluska, who should have done better, from 35 yards out.

Other Champions League third qualifying round results:

Aktobe 1 - 0 Hapoel Tel Aviv

BATE Borisov 0 - 0 FC Copenhagen

FC Sheriff 1 - 1 Dinamo Zagreb

Debrecen 0 - 2 Basel

Young Boys Bern 2 - 2 Fenerbahce

AIK Stockholm 0 - 1 Rosenborg

Ajax Amsterdam 1 - 1 PAOK Saloniki

Partizan Belgrade 3 - 0 HJK Helsinki