For a while they could see them quite clearly. Look: there are Juventus! Liverpool too! Over there, Ajax and Sporting Lisbon!

Celtic last night worked themselves into a position which entitled them to fantasize about the sort of company they would be keeping in the Europa League's round of 32, long after Christmas. That gilded quartet are currently third in their Champions League groups and on course to drop into Celtic's tournament too. Celtic were enjoying themselves.

And then the view was obscured. Celtic were inching towards the finishing line and were about to qualify from Group D when their lack of second half impetus allowed two points to slip through their fingers. They were winning away from home in Romania, then Astra Giurgiu equalised ten minutes from time and a handbrake was applied to Celtic's ambition.

Will they still finish first or second in the section? Yes, probably, but they now have to take something at home to best team in the group, Red Bull Salzburg, or else avoid defeat against Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia to reclaim what they held for so long last night. Both of those obstacles are manageable when Celtic are at their best but they should be kicking themselves for signing up for another hard shift or two.

Last night was football in a sensory deprivation chamber: thick fog meant little for the eyes to see, a "crowd" of a couple of thousand meant a rest for the ears too. The Europa League really can seem like stale beer on November nights like these.

Giurgiu's recreation of Dickensian London was impressive. The game took place in a pea-souper, giving it a freakish, almost comedic context, although by kick-off time the heavy fog which had jeopardised the night had lifted enough at pitch level for the players to see what they were doing clearly enough.

The failings demonstrated by both teams could not be blamed on the conditions. Celtic took a hold of the game after a slow opening quarter-of-an-hour and were worth Stefan Johansen's opening goal after 32 minutes. They looked comfortable enough, and made other chances, before gradually slackening off and allowing Astra back into things.

The result did not amount to any derailment. Celtic have lost only one of their last 14 games and are painstakingly building the sort of run which can deliver a rewarding season under Ronny Deila. They are impossibly inconsistent, though, and even within the narrow span of 90 minutes they can fluctuate across the spectrum of a performance. Last night they looked a bit lost and unsure how to see out a winning position, and the outcome was an away draw - decent, okay, solid - when they could have had a valuable win.

When they fell from the Champions League into its unloved little brother Deila conceded that the Europa League was Celtic's level. He was right. They were skelped by Legia Warsaw and beaten again by Maribor in the qualifiers for the elite event, but remain unbeaten after four Europa League games and the inevitable sense of a missed opportunity last night should not obscure the generally successful campaign they have mounted so far.

Two wins and two draws have been fine, although Astra are a very limited side and having looked likely to put them to the sword the quality and authority drained out of Celtic's play in the second half and it ended as a contest between two modest equals.

Both goalkeepers did well - Craig Gordon has been Celtic's player of the tournament by a mile - and Silviu Lung didn't have snowball in hell's chance of stopping Johansen's soaring strike for the opening goal after it took a sizeable deflection off one of the defenders in the wall. Johansen had an assured night, playing with composure in midfield and using the ball more tidily than Scott Brown who again grafted to win possession only to concede it cheaply.

Callum McGregor's distribution wasn't tight enough either and, like Stefan Scepovic, he would have been grateful if the fog had obscured much of his contribution. McGregor's form has shaded noticeably since his wonderful eruption at the start of the season while Scepovic has yet to consistently impress. Wakaso started well last night before becoming another who disappeared.

Astra could have had a penalty, although more worrying than Jason Denayer's slight manhandling of Sadat Bukari was the fact a single through ball from 30 yards cut right through the Celtic back four. The defence also did too little to close down William Amorim before he curled a delicious ball high inside the far post for 1-1. Celtic could have had a winner when Leigh Griffiths was harshly judged to have nudged a defender before putting the ball in the net.

The flying assault on Charlie Mulgrew which earned Vincent Laban a straight red card in stoppage time was a disgrace, as bad a tackle as you'll see all season. For him, the red mist had fallen. It was satisfying that the fog was not an accomplice to his crime, because it had lifted and did not hide him from the cameras' glare, or from the referee's.