AC Milan have opened their Champions League Group H campaign with a 2-0 victory over Celtic at the San Siro.
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The visitors were caught off-guard as early as the sixth minute when Valter Birsa found Mario Balotelli inside the box, but the Italian striker failed to get his volley past Fraser Forster.
The match petered out a bit thereafter, but gained some spark again just after the half-hour mark when Antonio Nocerino's attempt from close range went over the Celtic crossbar.
Celtic asked questions of the Milan defence in the opening minutes of the second half, as Georgios Samaras shot just wide from outside the penalty box.
The Italian giants had a chance of their own on 65 minutes through Sulley Muntari, who failed to get a proper control of his header from just four yards out.
Celtic were unlucky not to break the deadlock on 80 minutes when Anthony Stokes saw his effort rattle the bar.
Then three minutes later Milan found their first goal through Christian Zapata's deflected effort from 20 yards, before Muntari bagged the points for the Rossoneri with a close-range finish after Forster had failed to keep out a Balotelli effort.
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Subhankar Mondal
