AS Celtic and their army of followers made their weary, bleary retreat from Paris yesterday morning, it seemed worthwhile issuing a reminder of the good news. With every shot which whizzed remorselessly past Craig Gordon last night, Celtic were all but securing their passage into continental football beyond Christmas.
All they require now to seal a Europa League last-32 place is to avoid a three-goal defeat against Anderlecht in Glasgow, a task which this group of players should be able to achieve comfortably. That, ultimately, will be job done, a demonstration of clear progression from last season.
Champions League football is brutal, unforgiving stuff and anyone who thought Celtic ever had much more to shoot for from this group was deluding themselves.
Now, for the more awkward questions. Is it acceptable for the Champions of Scotland to take a 7-1 defeat against any team, albeit one as ludicrously talented and expensively assembled as Paris Saint-Germain?
Once again last night the mantra was about the importance of learning lessons from the ‘best of the best’, but are Celtic actually learning their lessons or merely repeating their past mistakes.
Some, certainly, of that travelling army of supporters would have traded Moussa Dembele’s stunning goal within 59 seconds – a real feather in the club’s cap as it was the first time PSG had conceded in Europe this season – for a more mundane two or three-nil defeat where they rarely ventured over the halfway line.
Then there are the follow-up questions. How damning a judgement should be made about this series of individuals? Should we just shrug the 12-1 aggregate scoreline off, as PSG can boast a top-ten player in every position – and in some cases, most notably Neymar - the very best exponent of that role in the world?
Or will the wider world start looking at such humbling scorelines and determine that it adversely affects the standing on the world scene of both Brendan Rodgers and his players. Tearing up Scottish football right now or not, exposure to this level of competition only illustrated how far certain players still have to travel. Dembele, for instance, might have grabbed the goal but if he wants to be a world superstar he must do more with the space he often found in the left channel abandoned by Alves’ forward thrusts. At least four further times he found himself there with a chance to engage PSG’s central defenders one-on-one and was generally unable to capitalise.
By contrast, any time Celtic squandered possession in their own half a PSG goal was almost automatic – with finishes flying in with unerring accuracy either off the woodwork or into the bottom corner. Fingers were pointed in Craig Gordon’s direction but these were shots which would have taken some saving.
Celtic were justified in pointing out that they had actually performed better here than during the 5-0 defeat in the home match.
“I think we played better in Paris than we did in the home leg,” said Kieran Tierney. We played better football, kept the ball more and created more but it was a sore result and ended up a bad one. People aren’t looking at what we did on the ball. They are looking at the result.”
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