Celtic and Wolverhampton Wanderers have continued their pre-season schedule by playing out a 1-1 draw in Dublin.
These two sides had been hoping to square off as part of a tour of South Korea, only for organisers to fail to deliver on promises made before the trip to Asia.
Instead, the game was moved to the Aviva Stadium in Ireland and both sides had to be content with a share of the spoils after a late Matheus Cunha penalty cancelled out Kyogo Furuhashi's early goal.
With the new campaign lurking around the corner for each side, Brendan Rodgers and Julen Lopetegui named strong starting lineups, and the latter had reason to be confident that his team would come out of the blocks fast after seeing off Porto in midweek.
However, the Premier League outfit found themselves behind after just six minutes, with Mario Lemina being dispossessed on the touchline before Furuhashi clinically finished past Jose Sa after the ball had fallen invitingly to him inside the penalty area.
💥 Clinical from Kyogo! #CELWOL | #COYBIG🍀🇮🇪
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 29, 2023
pic.twitter.com/9jMyEXJdrT
After Sa had bailed out Wolves soon after Celtic's opener, Wolves had chances to equalise, most notably through Matheus Nunes who somehow failed to hit the target with the goal at his mercy.
While Max Kilman was forced to clear off the line before the interval, Celtic failed to build on that opportunity with Wolves having the better of proceedings after the break.
Cunha was at the heart of many of Wolves' attacks and perhaps should have opened his account long before he was presented with the chance to level the score from the spot with four minutes remaining.
The referee deemed that Joe Hart had brought down Matt Doherty inside the area, allowing Cunha to send the veteran English stopper the wrong way to earn his side a deserved draw.
Darren Plant
