Celtic have succumbed to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Molde in Thursday night's Europa League Group A clash at the Aker Stadion.

The Norwegian side, who brought former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer back to the club this week, took the lead in the 11th minute.

Mohamed Elyounoussi squared the ball up for Ola Kamara, who rifled past Craig Gordon into the bottom right corner to deal Ronny Deila's charges an early blow.

Just seven minutes later the hosts succeeded in doubling their lead through Vegard Forren, who made the most of Celtic's poor handling of a set piece to fire a first-time shot inside the left post.

The visitors set about trying to get back into the game and played admirably, but could have conceded a third goal just before the break when Elyounoussi's powerful shot from the edge of the box was desperately kept out by Gordon.

Celtic carved themselves a lifeline in the 55th minute when Kris Commons pounced on a poor backpass to take the ball past the last man and blast into the roof of the net.

Just a minute later, however, the hosts restored their two-goal lead through Elyounoussi, who volleyed in at the far post from Mattias Mostrom's lofted cross.

The shellshocked visitors regrouped and enjoyed a number of forays into the opposition box, but as had been the case time and time again, Molde's chances turned out to be the more dangerous.

Kamara was guilty of missing two gilt-edged chances when he headed wide just after the hour, before making a yard for himself in the box eight minutes later and firing the wrong side of the left post.

With six minutes to go, Etzaz Hussain received a defence-splitting pass in the box and lashed the ball towards the bottom-right corner of goal, but Gordon was able to launch into a dive to stop the effort.

Right at the death Nir Bitton picked up a precise pass and let rip with a bullet of a strike from distance that smashed against the crossbar and out of danger.