Celtic 2-1 Sturm Graz: Resilient Nygren leads quickfire Europa League comeback

Celtic scored two goals in four second-half minutes to defeat Sturm Graz 2-1 for their first Europa League win of the season.

Quickfire goals from Liam Scales and Benjamin Nygren, who could have left with the match ball, after the hour mark saw the hosts complete an important turnaround following Tomi Horvat's stunning opener at Celtic Park.

The Scottish Premiership side suffered an early blow after Kelechi Iheanacho was forced off with an injury inside the opening five minutes, and things got worse soon after when Horvat fired the ball into the top-left corner from close to 25 yards out.

Otar Kitieshvili then slammed the post for the visitors before Arne Engels saw his effort cleared off the line and Nygren missed the target with a header from the edge of the six-yard box at the other end. 

But soon after Nygren missed another header for Celtic, Scales found the bottom corner after a well-worked short corner routine moments before Nygren finally found the back of the net from Engels' in-swinging corner.

Any chance of an equaliser for the Austrian side was lowered when Tochi Chukwuani was shown a red card for a late challenge on Callum McGregor, while Brendan Rodgers' side missed more opportunities to extend the lead through Johnny Kenny and Nygren late on. 

Data Debrief: The Bhoys show their resilience

Celtic were far from their clinical best in this match, scoring just twice despite producing 4.24 expected goals (xG) from 20 attempts, but Rodgers will be glad to finally get into the win column in the competition.

Of their xG, 2.43 came from Nygren alone, who refused to give up despite missing multiple chances. He took seven shots in total, which included five big chances, and registered nine touches in the box, leading his team in all three of those categories.

This was also Celtic's first win in the Europa League after going a goal down in seven games, last doing so against Lazio in November 2019.