2020-07-21: PSG 4-0 Celtic, Friendly

Match Pictures | Matches: 20212022


Trivia

  • Third & final pre-season match in France for Celtic.
  • Sides take the knee for the Black Lives Movement; to ‘celebrate’ this all all-inclusiveness Sevco release a new Orange strip!
  • Last time the two sides met, Celtic were hammered 7-0 in Paris in the Champions League.
  • PSG’s Neymar the clown prince/pantomime villian – diving & causing friction in a friendly!
  • Celtic SLO’s victory over PSG as hoops ensured entry to Parc des Princes. 5000 tickets on sale – €60 per ticket for a friendly! Scandalous.
  • Match only on Premier Sports TV
  • From a Paris Saint-Germain point of view, Tuesday’s friendly match against Celtic FC went about as well as you could have hoped for but on the other side, fans of the Scottish champions are claiming they nearly had their tickets revoked and that they weren’t allowed to wear the iconic colours of their club. According to David Faulds of The Celtic Star, PSG announced that Celtic fans could attend the exhibition at the end of last week and tickets could be purchased for a hefty price of £56 each. Their fans reluctantly purchased tickets and made accommodations to be in Paris.
  • World still stuck in the COVID-19 pandemic. Scotland has been hit hard, but numbers are well down and under control, but there has been outbreaks around North Lanarkshire. No deaths of late in Scotland, but England’s situation is still a shambles.
  • Celtic could be asked to play as many as 10 games throughout the month of December as the SFA pinpoints December as the idea time to play the postponed Scottish Cup semi-finals from last term.
  • Neil Lennon admits he may be powerless to stop some of his stars leaving for big-money deals as the financial cost of the coronavirus pandemic may necessitate their transfer.
  • Peter Lawwell has returned as a director of the Scottish Professional Football League, replacing Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson.
  • Lots of ex-players being pulled out to comment on Leigh Griffiths: “He’s let the manager down….” etc etc. Neil Lennon says he is not thinking about loaning him out.
  • UAE launch a rocket to send to Mars!
  • Celtic are considering a move for West Ham United striker Albian Ajeti

Summary

“For all PSG’s endless reservoirs of money, Celtic possess the one thing that they covet most — a European Cup win in 1967.” (journo: Brian Marjoribanks in Daily mail)

(RetroCelt on KDS)

What I took from tonight’s match. We played some decent stuff. Impressed by Christie, McGregor, Moi, Frimpong, Ntcham Would like a Goalkeeper, Left-back, centre-back and 1 more striker. PSG were different class to the majority of teams we’ll meet this season.Just my opinion

Others:

Goals against too easy. Frimpong, N’tcham, Christie showing up well. Neymar is a twat: very poor antics and umpteen late swipes at Celtic players which have gone unpunished!

“That’s as stiff an examination as you’re going to get. I’m really pleased with a lot of aspects of the game.”

Neil Lennon


Teams

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.

Goals: –

PSG (4-2-4):
Navas (Rico 46); Kehrer (Dagba 46), Marquinhos (Kimpebe 46), Thiago Silva (Mbe Soh 46), Bakker (Kurzawa 46); Gueye (Verratti 46), Paredes (Herrera 46); Di Maria (Draxler 46), Mbappe, (Sarabia 46) Neymar (Kalimuendo 46) (Ruiz 83), Icardi (Choupo-Moting-Moting 46).

Subs not used: Bulka, Pembele.

Goals: Mbappe 1, Neymar 25, Herrera 48, Sarabia 67.

Ref:

Att: 5000

Stadium: Parc de Princs


Articles

  • Match Report (see below)

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Articles

PSG 4-0 Celtic: Neymar and Mbappe overpower Neil Lennon’s side

Sobering end to French pre-season tour

By Ronnie Esplin

Tuesday, 21st July 2020, 10:02 pm

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/psg-4-0-celtic-neymar-and-mbappe-overpower-neil-lennons-side-2920334

Celtic ended their pre-season foray to France with a sobering 4-0 friendly defeat by Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes.

Striker Kylian Mbappe had the home side ahead in the first minute with a smart finish and in the 25th minute Brazilian superstar Neymar added a second.

Celtic: Get the latest team news, match previews and reports

PSG made wholesale changes for the second half but if anything increased their control with two of their substitutes, Marco Verratti and Ander Herrera, combining three minutes after the restart for the latter to fire in a third. Pablo Sarabia added a fourth in the 66th minute with a stunning volley and the French champions ran out easy winners.

PSG’s Kylian Mbappe is congratulated by defender Thilo Kehrer after his early opener. Picture: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images

PSG’s Kylian Mbappe is congratulated by defender Thilo Kehrer after his early opener. Picture: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images

Neil Lennon’s side went into the game following a 2-1 defeat by Lyon and a 1-1 draw with Nice in the Veolia Trophy tournament but this was a huge step up from which they can take added fitness and sharpness.

Celtic begin their quest for their tenth successive Premiership title at home to Hamilton on 2 August, safe in the knowledge they will not face this level of opponent domestically next season.

The Scottish champions had lost 7-1 at the same venue and 5-0 at Parkhead when the clubs met in the Champions League in 2017. Ominously, PSG took the lead with less than a minute on the clock when the lightning Mbappe flew through the centre of the Celtic defence to take a Neymar pass and rifle the ball past helpless keeper Scott Bain.

Celtic’s response was heartening. In the 13th minute midfielder Olivier Ntcham’s goal-bound shot was deflected over the bar for a corner, which came to nothing but PSG always retained a threat and at the other end striker Mauro Icardi was only inches away from getting on the end of an Mbappe cross. To end a decent spell of play by Celtic, Neymar took a cutback 14 yards from goal and drove in PSG’s second off the legs of Nir Bitton.

In the 34th minute Bain made a good save from Mbappe after he had been sent through by Neymar. But two minutes later Celtic came close to reducing the deficit when Christopher Jullien headed a Ryan Christie free-kick off the post.

A new-look PSG side started the second half almost as quickly as the first – although Bain looked at fault when Herrera slammed in a low drive, the ball bouncing up from the keeper’s gloves and into the roof of the net.

There was little more of note until the 62nd minute, when Herrera smashed a drive from 25 yards past the post, but four minutes later Sarabia made it four with a textbook volley from a Verratti pass.

Celtic kept going and in the 72nd minute, substitute James Forrest had a decent drive saved by Sergio Rico and the Scotland winger came close with a drive in the final minute as the visitors tried in vain for a consolation.

PSG 4-0 Celtic: Mbappe and Neymar score in friendly

From the section Celtic

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53493202

Superstars Kylian Mbappe and Neymar were on target as Celtic ended their pre-season tour of France with a 4-0 defeat to Paris St-Germain.

Around 60 Celtic supporters were in attendance, with 5,000 permitted inside the 48,000-capacity Parc des Princes.

They witnessed France striker Mbappe race clear to score after just 53 seconds, with Neymar’s deflected strike doubling the hosts’ lead.

Ander Herrera and Pablo Sarabia scored after the interval.

The closest Celtic came to a reply was through a Christopher Jullien header which thumped against the post late in the first half, while James Forrest shot narrowly wide in the final throes of the game.

Warming up for Friday’s French Cup final against St Etienne and their Champions League quarter-final with Atalanta in August, PSG changed their entire team at the break.

Having suffered a 7-1 Champions League thrashing on their last visit to the Parc des Princes, Celtic fielded a strong eleven but had no answer to the pace and panache of the expensively assembled Ligue 1 champions.

Last week, Celtic took part in the Veolia Trophy, along with Rangers, drawing 1-1 with Nice and losing 2-1 to Lyon.

Manager Neil Lennon, who exchanged a few angry words with Neymar after the Brazilian won a free kick near the touchline, will now turn his focus to the defence of the Premiership title and the opening match at home to Hamilton Accies on 2 August.

Manager: Positives can be drawn from defeat to world-class side

By: Joe Donnelly on 21 Jul, 2020 21:34

http://www.celticfc.net/news/18345

CELTIC rounded off their pre-season tour of France with a 4-0 defeat to Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain this evening (Tuesday), but manager Neil Lennon said there are plenty of positives to be drawn from the performance despite the result.

The nine in-a-row champions conceded an early goal at the hands of French hitman Kylian Mbappe at the Parc des Princes, but as the game opened up, the Hoops begun to impress with a more familiar style of attacking football.

Still, PSG were clinical throughout and wasted few chances in front of goal. Christopher Jullien hit the post with a header on 38 minutes, before second half substitute James Forrest tested the PSG goalkeeper late in the game, but even a consolation goal was not to be for the Irishman’s men.

“We were playing against a world-class side,” Neil Lennon told Celtic TV after the game. “We didn’t get off to the best of starts, but I thought after that, for about 30-35 minutes, we were a match and we played some really good football. I’m so disappointed we didn’t get a goal because I thought our play deserved one.

“But that’s as stiff an examination as you’re going to get, so in terms of a working exercise on the physical side of the game, the mental side and the concentration side of it, that’s as good as it gets. I’m really pleased with a lot of aspects of the game.”

The manager stressed that Scott Brown was rested as a precautionary measure, and said he’s certain his players will benefit from going toe-to-toe with one of world football’s best teams.

He added: “It was really tough for the players, and then PSG changed their full team at half-time. I think some of our players needed the game.

“The players have only really had one full game going into this one, so I think they’ll benefit from it. It’s a been a terrific quality of teams that we’ve played over the last four or five days and I think that’ll stand us in good stead going forward.”