Pre-season friendly
Parc des Princes, Paris
Tuesday, July 21, 2020

PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN… 4
(Mbappe 1, Neymar 25, Herrera 48, Sarabia 66)

CELTIC… 0

It was the toughest of tests for Celtic in the final match of their pre-season trip to France, taking on Paris Saint-Germain in the Parc des Princes. And Kylian Mbappe’s first minute goal for the home side merely served to reinforce the magnitude of the task.

The French champions looked dangerous every time they were on the attack, but as Neil Lennon’s side played their way into the game, they looked increasingly comfortable in possession and threatened down either flank. Both Greg Taylor and Jeremie Frimpong got into got attacking positions, but the Hoops weren’t able to fashion a clear-cut chance.

And on 25 minutes, PSG showed their quality again when Neymar fired home from inside the box to make it 2-0, albeit with the aid of a deflection from Nir Bitton which took the ball beyond Scott Bain.

Ten minutes later, the Celtic goalkeeper did well to deny Mbappe his second of the game after the French striker had been put through by Neymar, and three minutes later the Hoops came agonisingly close to a goal.

Ryan Christie fired in a superb free-kick from the right-hand side, but Chris Jullien’s header came back off the post and was scrambled away by the home side.

PSG, with a French Cup final against St Etienne to look forward to on Friday night, made a raft of changes at the break, but it didn’t upset their attacking rhythm and they made it 3-0 just three minutes into the second half through a powerful Ander Herrera shot from 12 yards out.

In a similar vein to the first-half, Celtic managed to play themselves into the game again, but they were hit on the counter-attack on 66 minutes, with Pablo Sarabia scoring PSG’s fourth of the game.

James Forrest, on as a substitute for Nir Bitton, had a couple of efforts. The first was saved by the PSG goalkeeper, while the second went narrowly wide, denying Celtic a consolation goal in the French capital.

CELTIC: Bain; Bitton (Forrest 65), Ajer, Jullien; Frimpong, Ntcham (Rogic 73), McGregor, Taylor (Bolingoli 74); Christie, Elyounoussi; Edouard (Klimala 67).
Subs: Doohan, Hazard, Soro, Connell, Robertson, Henderson, McInroy, Welsh, Dembele.

Tough end to French tour as Celtic lose out to Paris Saint-Germain