A Sheep Is Saved, and Celtic Wins Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images James Forrest, right, after scoring the goal on Wednesday that sent Glasgow Celtic to the group stage of the Champions League. Perhaps it was the absence of a ritual slaughter that was the ultimate undoing of Shakhter Karagandy. The team from the Kazakh capital, Astana, traveled to Scotland for Wednesday's second leg of its UEFA Champions League playoff against Glasgow Celtic clutching a 2-0 lead from the first leg. Yet before the match, all the talk was about the Kazakh club's pregame slaughter of a sheep. At Tuesday's prematch news conference in Scotland, Shakhter's Viktor Kumykov said the club planned to carry out what he called a "tradition," the same act that was performed one day before his club's victory last week. That slaughter drew protests from the animal rights group PETA. "Celtic must have their own," he said at the news conference, according to the Web site of The Guardian. We will try to respect our traditions, and those traditions have been in place even before we came to the club. When he was asked if the club was planning to slaughter a sheep before the return match, Kumykov said, "Possibly, yes." Finally, when he was asked where the club planned to find a sheep, he said, "As far as we know in Scotland the agriculture is very developed, so it shouldn't be an issue to find a sheep." But UEFA, the sport's European governing body, stepped in and told Karagandy, the champion of the Kazakh league, that "animal slaughter was not acceptable in or around our competitions, and that the club would face sanctions if it happens again." So it might have been hard to ascertain what was anticipated more: a possible animal sacrifice or the match. But for Karagandy, it was no sacrifice and no place in the group stage of the Champions League. Celtic tied the two-game series, 2-2, on goals by Kris Commons and Giorgos Samaras, then sealed the aggregate victory, 3-2, when James Forrest scored the game- and series-winning goal in the second minute of second-half injury time, past goalkeeper Aleksandr Mokin. "That was the greatest thing I've ever done in football," Celtic Manager Neil Lennon said after the match. The last three months were in preparation for this. We lost three very important players, and it has been difficult to replace them. Coming from 2-0 down tonight just makes the players all the more remarkable. They were wonderful, absolutely wonderful. And at least one Scottish sheep can rest easier, for another day.