In what was another terrific European night at Celtic Park, Scott McDonald's clever lob over United's stand-in keeper Ben Foster in the 13th minute gave Gordon Strachan's side a deserved lead.

However, the Parkhead faithful could rarely have witnessed the home side defend so deep and so desperately on their home ground as Celtic were pinned back for almost all of the second half.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson threw on Dimitar Berbatov, Patrice Evra and Wayne Rooney in search of the equaliser but it looked liked the Scottish champions would survive until Ryan Giggs popped up with an 84th-minute equaliser.

"We were having a bit of a laugh about it afterwards", Wilson said.

"I have never defended that much in my life before and maybe Manchester United will feel hard done by.

"We thought it was going to be our night but it wasn't to be. It was backs against the wall in the second half and we hardly got up the pitch.

"We knew it was going to be like that when we scored the goal so early so it was just a case of getting our bodies in front of what we could, and we did that reasonably well until the end.

"You think you have seen out the worst of it when they have created so many chances and not scored so it was disappointing to lose the goal although we had a bit of luck with Berbatov at the end when he missed that chance.

"But that's what coming to Celtic Park is all about. "It was the best atmosphere I've experienced there. We made it hard for them to score and we also kept our good home record going."

Contrary to pre-match expectations, Celtic still have a chance of qualifying for the last 16 for the third time in a row.

If Manchester United win at Villarreal in their next match and Celtic arrest their poor away record by beating Aalborg on the same night, a two-goal victory for the Hoops against the Spanish side in the last Group E match at Parkhead would see Gordon Strachan's side through to the knockout stages again.

The former Dundee United player was in no mood to give up hope, saying: "We definitely have a chance. You saw the quality of Manchester United.

"They are the best team in Europe in my opinion and they are capable of going to Villarreal and winning.

"If we get a bit of luck we can definitely beat Villarreal here and hopefully before that we can put our bad away record to bed when we go to Aalborg."

Celtic captain Stephen McManus is also hopeful of leading his troops out of the group stages once again.

He said: "We gave it our best shot against United. Sometimes you need a bit of luck in these games and we never got that.

"Our aim is to stay in Europe after Christmas but we have two games left and are looking to pick up six points and then we will see where that that takes us."

Celtic are facing another fine after a fan ran on the pitch during the first half, causing the match to be stopped.

UEFA had previously warned the Parkhead club about the behaviour of their supporters after a similar incident a year ago when a fan confronted AC Milan keeper Dida.

Celtic were ordered to pay a fine of £25,000, half of which was suspended.

A UEFA spokesman told PA Sport: "We are awaiting the match delegate's report."