Celtic twice surrendered the lead to draw 2-2 with Salzburg in their thrilling Europa League Group D opener in Austria.

Mubarak Wakaso scored 14 minutes into his debut but Brazilian striker Alan levelled for the hosts 10 minutes from the break with a shot from the edge of the box which took a marked deflection off Efe Ambrose.

On the hour mark Celtic captain Scott Brown, playing only his second game of the season after recovering from a hamstring injury, sent in a drive from outside the box which hit Andre Ramalho and the ball spun into the net.

Gordon made several saves, a couple of them brilliant, to keep the home side at bay but he had no chance in the 77th minute with skipper Jonatan Soriano's 25-yard free-kick which flew high into the top corner.

However, manager Ronny Deila will probably see this as a positive result against the top seeds as he prepares to face Dinamo Zagreb, who hammered Romanian outfit FC Astra 5-1, next month.

Salzburg's 32,000-capacity stadium was less than half-full at kick-off with the few hundred visiting fans who made the trip seeing Wakaso for the first time.

The Ghanaian winger, on loan from Rubin Kazan, made a dream start to his Hoops' career. He did not break stride as he ran on to a Kris Commons pass at the edge of the box and sent a left-footed shot past Salzburg keeper Peter Gulacsi and in at the far corner.

It was a body blow for the home side who had started the better but they upped the pace and came close when midfielder Kevin Kampl curled a shot wide from the edge of the box after being set up by Christoph Leitgeb.

The game opened up further.

Gordon made a decent save down at his right-hand post from Soriano.

In the 31st minute the former Scotland No.1 then made a brilliant fingertip save from Ramalho after the Salzburg defender had escaped the defence to get his head on to a Soriano free-kick, the resultant corner coming to nothing.

The Salzburg pressure mounted but their equaliser owed much to good fortune when Alan's shot from the edge of the box, after he had been played in by Kampl, struck the luckless Ambrose and sped past Gordon.

The Scottish champions were looking for the respite of the half-time whistle but before then midfielder Marcel Sabitzer fired wide from the edge of the box.

Four minutes after the break Gordon made yet another fine save, this time pushing Alan's powerful drive round the post for a corner, which came to nothing.

In the 52nd minute Stefan Scepovic tried his luck with a long-distance punt and came within a couple of feet of scoring a remarkable goal.

However, that incident was out of kilter with proceedings.

Three minutes later Gordon came to Celtic's rescue again with a double-save, first parrying a drive from Sabitzer into the air and then somehow clawing away Alan's close-range header from the loose ball.

Against the run of play, Celtic took the lead.

Ramalho thought he had done his job when he headed clear a Callum McGregor cross but watched Brown smash the ball back at goal, taking a nick off the Brazilian defender to wrong-foot Gulacsi.

Anthony Stokes replaced Scepovic after 67 minutes but Salzburg came back again, Alan skimming the outside of the post with an effort from the edge of the box.

There was no surprise when Salzburg levelled although Soriano's free-kick, after Emilio Izaguirre had fouled Sabitzer, was perfectly-executed, giving Gordon no chance.

Gordon conceded that Salzburg's late equaliser was a moment of top quality as he declared himself happy with the result. And he held up his hands and praised Soriano for his exquisite equaliser.
"It's a great strike," said the Celtic keeper. "I said that to him at the end - he came up to me, shook my hand and smiled at me so I knew what he was getting at.
"Yeah it was a great piece of skill to get it up and over like that and into the top corner. I got close, but not close enough.
"Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up."
The result sees Celtic, who dropped down into the Europa League after failing to get past Maribor in their Champions League play-off, sit second after the opening games in Group D.
"We said we wanted to come here and get a good result and get off to a good start," added Gordon.
"We've done that, we'll take the 2-2 draw, it could have been better but, ah well, we're definitely satisfied with that."
The former Sunderland keeper also reserved special praise for both of Celtic's goalscorers on the night, including debutant Mubarak.
"He's been scoring some great goals in training and he got another one today," he said.
"That was a good decision to put him in for his debut, I thought he was excellent.
"And Scott, I don't know where he gets the energy from, he's been out for quite some time but he summoned up the strength to keep on going for 90 minutes tonight and that's the measure of Browny - he gives everything to the cause."