A piece of individual brilliance from Daizen Maeda earned Celtic a Champions League point after an incredible blunder from Cameron Carter-Vickers gifted Club Brugge the lead at Parkhead.
There was little surprise that Brugge took the lead in the 26th minute but the manner of the goal was a total shock.
Nicolas Kuhn was forced into his own box as Brugge pressed and laid the ball off for Carter-Vickers, who passed back without looking. Kasper Schmeichel was at the opposite side of his goal to where the defender guessed and the ball rolled into the corner of the net.
Celtic struggled to make inroads until Maeda took centre stage on the hour mark. The wide player’s Cruyff turn set up the chance to shoot from a tight angle and he curled in off the post.
Brugge had a goal disallowed before Celtic finished the game on top as they moved on to eight points ahead of their trip to Croatia to face Dinamo Zagreb on December 10.
The Belgians imposed themselves on the game from the start, with Celtic struggling to get out of their half. Centre-forward Ferran Jutgla came close from 20 yards after Reo Hatate had showed too much of the ball to an opposing midfielder.
Former Brugge B team player Arne Engels fired well over from a half-chance but that was a rare foray forward for Celtic in the opening quarter.
The visitors were playing through Celtic’s midfield and Andreas Skov Olsen curled just wide.
Despite the visitors’ superiority, Schmeichel had not had a save to make before being beaten by Carter-Vickers. The Celtic goalkeeper summoned his team-mates to give them his thoughts on what was going wrong.
The home team offered more of a threat before the interval, mainly through the wing play of Kuhn, who twice almost set up Kyogo Furuhashi and then did find Hatate, whose glancing header was comfortably saved.
Hatate shot wide from 22 yards after the interval but the game twice nearly drifted further away from the Scottish champions in the early stages of the second half.
Schmeichel pulled off an excellent stop from Maxim De Cuyper after the left-back broke forward and burst past Auston Trusty’s attempted tackle. Skov Olsen then blazed over from eight yards after a deep cross found him unmarked.
Brendan Rodgers made a double switch as Paulo Bernardo and Alex Valle came on and the latter immediately set up the equaliser with a well-weighted pass, although Maeda effectively made the goal himself.
There was a further twist 10 minutes later when Jutgla had a goal disallowed following a VAR check after stabbing home from 10 yards after Celtic could not defend a cross. A marginal offside came to the hosts’ rescue.
Bernardo made a difference to Celtic’s midfield after replacing Engels and the Portugal Under-21 international came closest to winning the game for the Hoops when he shot just wide from 20 yards after good skill.
Rodgers’ side kept the pressure on but there was no clear-cut opportunity in the final stages.
