Manager Strachan hails Celtic hero Donati

Massimo Donati celebrates after scoring his team's winning goal against Shakhtar Donetsk during their UEFA Champions League Group D football match in Glasgow on 28 November 2007. Celtic manager Gordon Strachan has hailed his side's 2-1 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk as their best ever win - and match winner Donati as a hero.

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan hailed his side's 2-1 Champions League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk as their best ever win - and match winner Massimo Donati as a hero.

The Scottish champions looked to be facing probable elimination from Europe's premier club competition until the Italian struck a sensational injury time winner in Wednesday night's match.

A draw would have left Celtic clinging to the hope they could get a better result away to Champions League holders AC Milan than Shakhtar managed at home to Benfica in their final games next Tuesday.

Instead Strachan's side now need only a draw against Milan, who qualified after drawing 1-1 away to Benfica, to clinch their place in the last 16.

And the Celtic manager was bursting with pride with the performance of his players.

Strachan said: "For sheer guts and determination I would say it's the best ever result in my time as Celtic manager.

"In different games we've had to think, some we've had to play really well technically, but in terms of just sheer guts that's as good as it gets."

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan (pictured) has hailed his side's 2-1 Champions League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk as their best ever win - and match winner Massimo Donati as a hero.

The Celtic boss continued: "The players can be very proud of themselves. We got off to a terrible start in the campaign when we lost two early goals to Shakhtar in Ukraine but we came back and with one game left still have a chance of going through."

And yet things had started ominously for the Scottish champions on Wednesday.

Shakhtar were ahead in only the fourth minute when defender John Kennedy failed to deal with a high ball and headed straight to Brazilian Brandao who gratefully fired the ball past Artur Boruc, despite the Polish goalkeeper managing to get a hand to the ball.

Things deteriorated further for Celtic when left-back Lee Naylor was stretchered off in the 16th minute, forcing midfielder Paul Hartley to move back to take his place and Donati coming off the substitute's bench.

Kennedy's night then went from bad to worse when he seemed to fall awkwardly under a challenge from Brandao in the 41st minute and had to be replaced by Steven Pressley - making his first appearance of the season.

Celtic supporters sing before their team take on Shakhtar Donetsk in their UEFA Champions League Group D match at Celtic Park in Glasgow. Celtic manager Gordon Strachan has hailed his side's 2-1 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk as their best ever win - and match winner Massimo Donati as a hero.

However, in the 45th minute Shakhtar committed a defensive howler of their own to gift Celtic an equaliser.

Their central defenders Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Croatian Darijo Srna collided trying to clear a cross and Celtic's Czech international Jiri Jarosik was on hand to lash the ball home from eight yards.

And in the final seconds of injury time Aiden McGeady squared for Donati 12-yards from goal and although the Italian did not strike the ball cleanly it bounced past the despairing dive of Shakhtar goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov and into the back of the net.

Strachan was delighted for his match winner.

The Celtic manager said: "Massimo's goal showed how funny football can be. He had a horrendous start to the day when I told him he wasn't playing and at the end of the day he is a hero.

"It's a night he'll always remember for scoring that goal and that shows you how you can never predict anything in football."

The only downside for Celtic was the two injuries to Naylor and Kennedy, although the former's does not appear to be too serious.

However, Strachan admitted to being worried Kennedy's could be a recurrence of the knee injury - suffered in a an international friendly for Scotland in March 1994 - which ruled him out of football for almost three years.

"Lee has a calf strain but John twisted his knee when he fell and he has been taken to hospital. I can only hope it's not the same type of injury he had before."