Champions League: Celtic humbled as PSG score five in Glasgow

PSG strikers Neymar, Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe destroyed Celtic

(Image credit: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

published 13 September 2017

Celtic 0 Paris Saint-Germain 5

Celtic suffered their most humiliating evening at home in European football as they were humbled 5-0 by Paris Saint-Germain.

The Scottish champions, winners of the tournament half a century ago, have never been on the receiving end of such a scoreline in front of their own fans and manager Brendan Rodgers said his side defended like children in the first-half.

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They were three down at the break and although they improved marginally in the second-half the gulf in class was painfully obvious. As it was last season, when Celtic were routed 7-0 in Barcelona, another scoreline that indicated how far Scottish football has fallen.

Champions of the Scottish Premiership for the past six seasons, Celtic are a class apart in their own league but in Europe’s top tournament they are little more than whipping boys, as Rodgers acknowledged.

“It was a harsh lesson and a tough lesson,” said the former Liverpool boss about Celtic’s worst home defeat in any competition since Hearts hammered them by a similar scoreline in 1895.

“We were playing like under-12s at times for me. But I don’t want to be too harsh on the players. We were playing against potential champions of this tournament. We weren’t just playing a level above, we were playing two or three levels above.”

The fear for Rodgers and everyone involved with Celtic is what might happen when they travel to Paris for the return fixture on November 22. By then Neymar and Kylian Mbappe will have had more time to bed down with their new teammates, and there is the possibility of even greater carnage.

Throw in a trip to Bayern Munich - who beat Anderlecht 3-0 last night - and Celtic have a long and probably agonising road ahead of them in Group B.

“This is a level which is all about learning for us, and tonight we’ll learn from that,” said Rodgers.

“It’s a phenomenal squad that Paris have, but I was proud of the players in the second half and the supporters were terrific tonight, they kept encouraging us.”

Playing with pace, artistry and confidence from the start, PSG went one up on 19 minutes when Neymar ran on to Adrien Rabiot’s sweet pass and fired past Craig Gordon.

Neymar turned provider for the second, assisting Mbappe to score his first European goal for his new club, and Edinson Cavani made it 3-0 from the penalty spot five minutes before the break.

Two goals in the last ten minutes - the first an own goal from Mikael Lustig and the second a bullet of a diving header from Cavani - sent the Celtic fans home in a state of shock.

For PSG there was nothing but joy, and the victory sent out a strong signal to the rest of Europe that this year they mean business after last season's implosion against Barcelona.

“My team showed a lot of character,” said coach Unai Emery. “It was really a team effort and it showed a really controlled approach to the game, which I’m very pleased with.”

Last night’s Champions League results

Group A