CRAIG Gordon savoured his Champions League group stage debut - even though he had to fish the ball out of his net three times.
The veteran made a fine late save to defy a deflected shot from Ilkay Gundogan as he finally graced Europe's premier club competition at the fourth time of asking and just weeks after it appeared that he had lost his first-team place to Dorus de Vries.
The Scotland international reclaimed his jersey after De Vries sustained a chest injury and said last night that he hopes he has done enough to stay in the team.
Read more: Celtic v Manchester City: Celtic man-by-man ratings
"There are not too many times that I have lost three goals in my career," said Gordon. "Having to score three goals to get the draw is not ideal but against a team like city that is pretty good.
"It was great to finally get a chance to play in the Champions League," he added. "It has been a long time coming and I thought I maybe wouldn't have got the chance a couple of weeks ago. I've been working as hard as I can in training to try to improve do the things I am expected to do, if I can do that and keep my standards as high as I have done the last three or four years then I will give myself a good chance to stay in the team.
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"It was everything I thought it would be - from the moment you walk out, and that music starts. That is when you know it is for real. I wasn't nervous about today, I was excited to give it everything I've got.
"We were up against a top quality team and I knew I would have to make saves in the game. As it happened it was later on but I knew I would have to come up with something. Thankfully I came up with enough to help us get a point. We were hanging on a bit at the end but we put so much into the game that we were determined to take something from it.
Read more: Celtic v Manchester City: Celtic man-by-man ratings
"It was tough being out the team but I thought I was training pretty well, I still felt I was in good form even when Dorus was playing," he added. "I tried to put him under as much pressure as possible but we get on great and support each other when each other is playing. At the same time I wanted to make sure that the manger know that I hadn't given up the fight."
Scott Sinclair, another outstanding performer on the night, said he felt he his old team had underestimated Celtic after their 7-0 defeat to Barcelona in the opening match day. "It's definitely a statement," said Sinclair. "There were a lot of people who were writing us off after losing 7-0 in Barcelona. But we wiped the negatives out from that game and we showed tonight against Manchester City how good we are."
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