Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon has played down his stunning first-half save from Richard Almeida last night in the Tofiq Bahramov arena as Celtic headed into the play-offs for the UEFA Champions League group stages.

The stopper's intervention kept Qarabag at bay in a tense affair as Celtic kept a clean sheet to progress thanks to their opening leg victory in Glasgow.

"It was a good save," said Gordon matter-of-factly. "I didn't have loads to do so that was my biggest moment. It was good to play a part.

"I saw the ball coming all the way, it didn't come through any bodies so that helped. I had good reaction time and I managed to get my hand to it."

And Gordon was relieved that Celtic prevailed on a surface that made for a precarious game at times.

Celtic had cause to suspect there would be a dearth of goals when they trained on a rutted, bone dry pitch in the build-up to this match.

Qarabag had failed to score in two of their three previous European matches and were hardly helped by their own surface. There is irony in the fact their game suffered more for the pitch than Celtic's.

"When we first saw the pitch we realised there wasn't going to be a great deal of quality football played and chanced would be at a premium,'"said Gordon.

"The lads found it difficult to fashion a chance on Tuesday when we played a small game.

"I kept a clean sheet in those games so I knew it was going to be difficult to create chances so we knew if we defended well then we would have a good chance of not conceding.

"It was difficult to take a goal kick. You could feel the sand beneath the pitch. The ball was bobbling which is not what you want."

Meanwhile, Dedryck Boyata's emerging defensive partnership with Virgil van Dijk is one which Celtic will hope to preserve.

The Dutch defender has been linked with a move to the Premiership this summer with Everton and Southampton showing interest in his situation but Ronny Deila is insistent that the player is not for sale.

Certainly, it is unlikely that the Parkhead side will allow him to go before they have concluded their attempts to make it into the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.

And Boyata has thrived on the partnership with Van Dijk.

"It happens to be good for the moment,' said Boyata.

"We are on a really good run, I'm happy. The people all around me, the people in the team, they've made it easy for me - I'm not going to lie to you, we have a good team spirit and it's not difficult to get inside it."

He hopes Van Dijk stays to prolong their growing understanding but has no control over the situation. If nothing else last night's stalemate and aggregate victory delays the inevitable.

"It's not my place to say,'"added Boyata on his defensive partner's future. "All I can say is he's a really good player and obviously him staying in the team would be a plus because we have some great players - Charlie Mulgrew and Efe Ambrose too, but it's not my position to say."