Shakhter Karagandy pulled off a surprise 2-0 victory over Celtic in Astana yesterday to take a significant step towards becoming the first Kazakhstan side in history to reach the Champions League group stages.

The hosts took the lead in the 12th minute of the qualifying play-off first leg through captain Andrei Finonchenko, who snuck in to poke the ball past goalkeeper Fraser Forster after a long throw from the left was flicked on at the front post.

The Scottish champions were then undone again with 13 minutes of normal time remaining as Finonchenko saw his effort well blocked by Steven Mouyokolo, Gediminas Vicius drove the loose ball forward and it teed up for Sergei Khizhnichenko to head beyond Forster.

Celtic yesterday started the game well but soon found themselves behind when Finon-chenko took advantage of some slack defending to score from close range.

Kris Commons rattled the bar with a thunderous drive in the 19th minute with the ball bouncing down on to the line but Neil Lennon’s side struggled at times with the route-one approach taken by a home side who looked limited in other aspects of their game.

The visitors had the best of things again in the second half with James Forrest missing a chance from six yards but in the 77th minute powerful striker Khizhnichenko headed in a second to leave the shell-shocked Hoops having to make amends in next week’s second leg in Glasgow.

Lennon, though, will be puzzled as to how his side have work to do against a basic team who themselves may wonder how they managed to emerge from the tie with a 2-0 win.

Shakhter Karagandy, the first Kazakh side to reach the play-off round of the competition, were playing 114 miles away from home in the 30,000-capacity national stadium, which was close to full with a couple of dozen Celtic fans in one corner behind goal.

Milan came away from their first-leg trip to PSV Eindhoven with a 1-1 draw.

Rossoneri striker Stephan El Shaarawy opened the scoring in the 15th minute, nodding in from Ignazio Abate’s cross.

PSV equalised around the hour mark when Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati let a shot from Jeffrey Bruma spin up off him and Tim Matavz headed the ball into the net.

Tough for Lyon

Lyon look to have a tough task on their hands to make it through to the group stage after their first leg against Real Sociedad ended in a 2-0 home defeat.

Frenchman Antoine Griezmann put the visitors in front in the 17th minute with an acrobatic effort and the advantage was doubled in the 50th minute when Haris Seferovic’s volley caught out goalkeeper Anthony Lopes.

Things got even worse for Lyon in the 75th minute as Milan Bisevac was sent off having picked up a second yellow card.

Zenit St Petersburg’s progression seems all but secure already at the half-way point of their tie against Pacos Ferreira after they claimed a 4-1 aggregate lead from the first leg in Portugal.

Roman Shirokov netted a hat-trick, with his second goal coming two minutes after Andre Leao’s volleyed equaliser.

Zenit’s third came through an own-goal by goalkeeper Matias Degra and Shirokov wrapped up his treble in the final moments of the match.

Viktoria Plzen have the advantage in their tie against Maribor, winning the first leg 3-1 at home.

They were 1-0 up early on through Marian Cisovsky and added another goal via Vladimir Darida 13 minutes into the second half, shortly before Ales Mejac pulled back a goal for the away side with a delightful strike.

Michal Duris restored the two-goal cushion with a minute of normal time to go.

The play-offs round, first legs