Chelsea loses to Shakhtar, Barcelona's last gasp 2-1 win over the Scottish champion and United's 3-2 victory over Braga, which saw the English giant become only the second side to come back from a 2-0 deficit twice and win - the other being Arsenal - has both of them needing just a point from their next games to seal a place in the knockout stages.
Holder Chelsea, though, is going to have to battle hard to reach that stage after it came away 2-1 loser to an impressive Shakhtar Donetsk at its fortress in Ukraine.
Shakhtar tops that group on seven points, while Chelsea's loss was slightly offset as Juventus had to come from behind to draw 1-1 in Copenhagen against Danish minnows Nordsjaelland for whom Mikkel Beckmann's goal was its first in the competition.
Despite a splendid rearguard action throughout the second half Celtic succumbed to a goal by Jordi Alba - his first at the Nou Camp - in the fourth minute of time added on as Barca recorded its 100th win in Champions League competition.
Victory also saw Barcelona break its club record for an unbeaten run at home extending the present one to 18, with its last defeat coming against Rubin Kazan in October 2009.
"I think that our win was deserved," said Alba, who moved to Barcelona in the summer from Valencia.
"The strength of this (Barcelona) team, is that it resists till the end.
"A match lasts for 90 minutes and that is the length of time that Barca spends trying to score."
Lennon said he couldn't be prouder of his side and relished the chance of a second go at Barcelona in Glasgow in a fortnight.
"They were brave and stuck with what I asked them to do," he said.
"They defended brilliantly and at times we looked dangerous on the counter-attack. Everybody had written us off but I knew of the quality of the character in the team. I look forward to doing it again in a couple of weeks."
Despite Celtic's bravura performance it only has a one-point advantage over Spartak Moscow, which grabbed its first win of the campaign after two defeats with a 2-1 home win over Benfica.
"We scored only twice but played with commitment both in attack and in defence giving our rivals almost no chance to play to their strengths," said Spartak's Spanish coach Unai Emery.
"I'm happy both with the result and our performance today."
United had to rely on a brace from the outstanding Javi Hernandez and a messy one from Jonny Evans to storm back and take the three points after its fragile defence, which saw Rio Ferdinand rested, had conceded two early goals to Alan.
United manager Alex Ferguson said he was getting used to having to rely on his offensive players to get the side back into contention in matches.
"It's been the story of our season at home, starting badly and losing goals," Ferguson said.
"We have had to rescue games and it is the front players doing that. We played some terrific football tonight but it is a concern losing the goals."
Chelsea manager Roberto di Matteo accepted that his side had not performed well enough against a classy Shakhtar side.
"The Champions League always throws up difficult and competitive matches," he said.
"You only have to look at the results in our group to see that.
"But we should have done better as a team. We still have a really good chance to qualify but it is imperative we win our next match against Shakhtar."
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