Celtic gave themselves an excellent chance of progressing to the group stages of the Champions League with a hard-fought victory over Basel.

The Swiss team gave the Scottish champions a real fright when they went ahead after 90 seconds through Christian Gimenez.

But a Henrik Larsson penalty two minutes later drew Celtic level.

In an excellent second half Celtic added two more goals, through Chris Sutton and Momo Sylla.

But the Swiss came close on a number of occasions and might have scored more themselves.

Celtic got off to a disastrous start when Gimenez got on the end of a through ball and held off two Celtic defenders to slide the ball past Rab Douglas and into the net.

The referee had no hesitation in awarding the spot kick and Larsson tucked the penalty past Pascal Zuberbuhler in the Basel goal.

A fantastic passing move by the Swiss almost put them in front again after 28 minutes, but Hakan Yakin's volley went narrowly wide.

Basel's neat passing was causing the Celtic defence all sorts of problems and Gimenez came within inches of getting his second goal just before half-time with a shot on the turn.

The Swiss threatened again at the beginning of the second half, and only two good blocks by Bobo Balde prevented Douglas having to make a save.

Celtic's first chance of the half came when Sylla found Sutton in the box but the big striker saw his shot on the turn saved by the keeper.

Moments later Celtic were ahead when Lennon hit a low drive and Sutton flicked the ball between his legs to send the keeper the wrong way.