AT times, Celtic rode their luck.

In fact, they were highly fortunate not to fall two or even three goals behind.

If Astana had been sharper up front they could easily have succumbed to the sort of defeat which would have made their prospects of progressing any further in the Champions League this season very slim indeed.

However, in the circumstances the first leg of their third qualifying round was played in – the Scottish champions were forced to field an untried defence on an artificial surface over 3,000 miles away in Kazakhstan in just their third competitive outing of the season – that was always going to be the case.

No, Brendan Rodgers’s players performed admirably all things considered. Most importantly, they took their chance when it came.

The goal Leigh Griffiths confidently slotted home in the 78th minute earned them a 1-1 draw which now gives them an outstanding chance of winning the tie and progressing to the play-off.

Astana, rivals who have accumulated considerable European experience in the past two seasons and have secured results against far more formidable sides away from home, are by no means out of the competition yet.

They showed exactly why they progressed to the group stages for the first time in their history last term and held Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Galatasaray to draws.

But the rematch in Glasgow next week – a game which Rodgers is hopeful the former Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool player Kolo Toure will be able to play in - should be an entirely different affair. It is just half-time in this fixture. It is very much advantage Celtic after this gutsy performance and excellent result.

Rodgers had to make a huge call before kick-off over who to play at the back after Erik Sviatchenko, who would have been a certainty to start at centre half, was ruled out with a groin strain. The options available to him weren’t exactly attractive.

He had played Mikael Lustig in the heart of a three man back line in the pre-season friendly with Leicester City at Parkhead on Saturday and the Swede had performed well. He decided, though, against fielding Lustig out of position and gave the nod instead to Efe Ambrose and Eoghan O’Connell in a four man defence in a bold 4-4-2 formation.

Ambrose had been at fault for the Lincoln Red Imps goal in the humiliating defeat which Celtic had suffered in Gibraltar in the previous round. It was far from the first time he had cost his team dear with an individual error.

The sight of the Nigerian in the starting line-up will have filled the small pocket of 100 or so Celtic fans who had made the arduous journey to Asia to see their team play with dread.

O’Connell, the 20-year-old Irish defender, was asked to make his European debut in demanding circumstances. But he certainly started confidently by winning the ball in the first minute with a physical challenge which took Patrick Twumasi some time to recover from.

Ambrose certainly had his work cut out trying to shackle Junior Kabananga, the powerful Zairean striker who partnered Twumasi in attack for the home team. It wasn’t long before he had made his first error of the evening.

He missed a Twumasi cutback from the byline in the 18th minute and was highly fortunate the ball was travelling too quickly for Kabananga to get on the end of it and net.

Astana, though, scored from the corner they won from that passage of play just a minute later. Twumasi whipped the ball into the box, Yuri Logvinenko peeled away from his marker O’Connell and headed in as Craig Gordon raced off his line rashly and unnecessarily.

A poorly executed attempt at a clearance by Ambrose on the half hour mark gifted Asat Nurgaliyev an unexpected scoring opportunity. Gordon partially atoned for his earlier error with a fine fingertip save after the midfielder tried to chip him.

The keeper also did well to block a Kabananga shot from an acute angle just two minutes before half-time after Tierney had lost possession to Twumasi.

But Celtic stuck to their task admirably. They had several attacks of their own, had what appeared to be a strong claim for a penalty turned down after Moussa Dembele was brought down in the Astana area and it wasn’t any great shock when Griffiths drew them level with 12 minutes remaining after some fine work by Patrick Roberts.

Griffiths celebrated a goal which silenced the 29,000-strong crowd inside the stadium exuberantly with a karate kick on the corner flag. His effort was not quite a fatal blow to Astana’s hopes of going through. But Celtic will be confident of killing off them off in the second leg next week after this.

“It doesn’t feel like a win,” said Rodgers. “What it is is a very, very good result. It’s only half time. A huge amount of credit must go to the players.

“I think we were written off before the game, everyone was pretty clear that we would do well to come back with anything other than a loss. The players deserve a lot of credit. It was a wonderful goal. We know the significance of the goal.

“But we are not getting carried away we have another game against a very good side. It’s only half time but it’s a very important result for us.”