IF pre-season games are all about fitness, then this will have been a hugely worthwhile exercise for Celtic, given the chasing they received from a star-studded Paris Saint Germain.
The visitors maintained parity for all of 55 seconds in the game, with two goals in each half bringing Celtic’s own three-match Tour de France skidding to a halt. Not that the wheels came off completely, with Celtic having spells within the match where they put together some nice stuff without unduly threatening the home goal, but the gulf in quality meant this was always going to be an uphill slog.
There was a stronger look to the Celtic side that took to the field here than in Saturday’s narrow defeat to Lyon, a reflection of the task that lay ahead in trying to shackle a PSG front four of Neymar, Angel Di Maria, Mauro Icardi and Kylian Mbappe.
Captain Scott Brown missed out after picking up a knock in training, with Callum McGregor taking the armband and Olivier Ntcham stepping into the midfield.
Within less than a minute, Celtic were torn apart. Thiago Silva fed a ball into Neymar in midfield, who turned and sliced open the visiting backline to find Mbappe racing in behind. He wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity, slamming the ball past Scott Bain with the minimum of fuss.
For all there was to admire about the beautiful simplicity of the goal, Celtic manager Neil Lennon will have been disappointed by the room afforded to Neymar in the centre of the park, and the ease at which he was allowed to set the unstoppable Mbappe on his bike.
Celtic seemed to anger PSG by getting the first goal here before shipping seven on their last visit on Champions League duty, but it was the Scottish side who in fact steadied the ship following the early strike this time, managing to string together some nice passes in attacking areas and giving Odsonne Edouard a sniff or two on his return to his old club.
Indeed, Jeremie Frimpong got to the byline and slid a dangerous ball across goal that Edouard may be disappointed he wasn’t in position to slide home from six yards.
Neymar hasn’t exactly endeared himself to the Celtic support in previous meetings, and he was up to his old tricks again here as he flicked a petulant boot at Nir Bitton after Ntcham had robbed him of possession.
As in the past though, the Brazilian had the last laugh, getting a slice of luck to double the hosts’ advantage moments later. A deflected cross found its way to Neymar in far too much space just inside the Celtic box, and his strike took another deflection off Bitton to wrong-foot Bain and roll into the net.
It was a shame for Celtic at that stage as they certainly grown into the game, but they almost gave themselves a tangible foothold as Ryan Christie swung a delightful free-kick into the box from the right, only for Christopher Jullien to glance a header off the post.
PSG removed their so-called big guns at the break, but with the likes of Julian Draxler, Marco Verratti and Ander Herrera joining the fray, there wasn’t exactly much of a drop off in quality.
Indeed, for all of Celtic’s good work at times for long spells of the first half, they were again caught on the hop after the restart, conceding within three minutes as former Manchester United midfielder Herrera latched on to a Verratti cross to slam home the third via the foot of Bain, who will feel he could have done much better to keep it out.
Veratti turned provider again after Frimpong had conceded possession cheaply, dinking in a beautiful ball for Spanish winger Pablo Sarabia to finish brilliantly, taking the ball over is shoulder first time on the volley and whipping it home.
James Forrest had entered the action for Celtic, and he got a good effort away as he cut in from the right that was palmed clear as the visitors searched for a consolation. The winger then came close again towards the end as his low shot across goal was touched just past the post, but the coup de grace had long been delivered.
The consolation for Celtic is that the shoe will likely be on the other foot once league action kicks off next week and they are back on home turf to take on Hamilton.
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