RICH PICKINGS FOR PSG

Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani give five-star masterclass as PSG run riot at Celtic Park

COMPREHENSIVELY outclassed by one of the costliest football teams ever assembled, Celtic’s embarrassment is not over yet.

The club’s heaviest home defeat since a 5-0 loss to Hearts in 1895 will be compounded by the certainty of yet more UEFA punishment. On both counts, Scotland’s champions can offer no complaint.

Paris Saint-Germain demonstrated what £420million buys you with a brutal and clinical dissection of the Parkhead side. Two late efforts — including a Mikael Lustig own goal — made this the club’s heaviest home loss in European football.

Yet the game was effectively over inside 40 minutes when goals from Neymar — the world’s most expensive player — and Kylian Mbappe — the second most expensive — preceded the needless concession of a penalty-kick by Jozo Simunovic. For one braindead bozo in the Lisbon Lions Stand, it was all too much.

Edinson Cavani, the third prong of football’s newest strike trinity, had just smashed the third goal high into the net from 12 yards when a mindless lout ran unchallenged past a barrage of stewards on to the pitch. He made it 40 yards, aiming a kick at Mbappe. Needless to say, he missed.

The consequence of his actions will be Celtic’s 11th UEFA punishment for fan disorder in six years. The night was bruising enough. The looming spectre of a partially closed stand is unlikely to ease the pain.

Celtic had never won their opening game in the Champions League and that was never changing here. It has to be said; PSG are a quite magnificent football team. They exposed Celtic’s defensive frailties with brutal precision.

The inclusion of 18-year-old Anthony Ralston for his fifth Celtic start will raise new questions over the failure to sign a central defender before the close of the summer transfer window.

Yet Brendan Rodgers could have parked five centre-halves on the 18-yard line with no guarantee of a better scoreline. In Scotland, Celtic routinely use superior resources to whip opponents. After a 7-0 defeat in Barcelona last year, they are fast learning how the other half lives. And the experience isn’t pleasant.

Neymar, a figure as popular as hemorrhoids around these parts, walked ominously to the left touchline before kick-off. Ralston responded as any Scottish defender might; dumping him on his backside within three minutes. It was as close to him as any Celtic player came all night.

The black-shirted French side moved the ball slickly, not so much occupying a different planet as a different stratosphere. Rodgers preaches the need for calm on these nights. Yet Celtic were visibly unnerved from the start. The lack of composure was evident when Olivier Ntcham snatched at a low shot on goal on nine minutes when a pass to Patrick Roberts looked the better option.

It would prove Celtic’s last opportunity for some time. What followed can only be described as a chasing.

PSG had the ball in the home net four times in a harrowing opening 45. The first, from Cavani, was ruled offside. Yet the visitors were a merciless bunch. After 15 minutes of skipping and dancing round missed tackles, the goal was in the post.

It came on 19 minutes and, as with anything Neymar does at Parkhead, came with controversy attached.

Seeking to ease the relentless one-way traffic towards Celtic’s goal, Scott Sinclair appeared to be fouled on the halfway line by Thiago Motta, the veteran who was sent off here for Barcelona in 2004.

Italian referee Daniele Orsato waved play on and PSG took ruthless advantage.

The lanky figure of midfielder Adrien Rabiot caught the eye repeatedly, and he sent a piercing ball behind the Celtic defence. From the moment Neymar collected it, there was little question of what came next. A floated finish over Craig Gordon made it 1-0, protests to the referee fruitless.

Leigh Griffiths came close to equalising with a trademark free-kick, Alphonse Areola producing a superb save. The focus on PSG’s front three does others an injustice. Pressing Celtic hard all over the pitch, the industry of Qatar’s factory 11 was a sight to behold. Roberts and Sinclair were surrounded on the ball by black shirts, squeezing the life out of every attack.

The second goal on 34 minutes drew the last strains of resistence from Celtic’s home support.

Marco Verratti’s cross towards Neymar was headed back across goal by the Brazilian, team-mates queuing up to apply the finish. Cavani took a fresh air swipe before Mbappe thrashed the ball high into the net. Celtic Park fell silent.

For the home team, this was now a grim war of attrition. Laying a glove on their opponents proved impossible, PSG playing the ball out of tight situations as if flicking ash from a car seat.

Simunovic picked an unsavoury way to mark the signing of a new contract. Left-back Layvin Kurzawa’s cross was overcooked and going nowhere in particular when the Celtic defender pushed Cavani over in the area. The No 9 took the kick himself, PSG players retreating to their positions for the restart when a drunken moron evaded a line of stewards and took a swipe at Mbappe. UEFA have opened an investigation into PSG’s flouting of Financial Fair Play rules. They’ll open another into Celtic soon enough.

A night already going downhill fast now had the feel of a wake.

Sinclair finally made it past the PSG defence into a shooting position before half-time, a thumping effort pushed over the crossbar by Areola. Yet the scoreline told no lies. Celtic were a distant, forlorn second at half-time. All night, if truth be told.

The introduction of Tom Rogic for Stuart Armstrong brought brief flickers of defiance. Ralston was booked, fans implored their side to ‘get intae them’ and Sinclair forced another save from Areola with an angled shot.

The Griffiths free-kick aside, however, this was a night of abject frustration for Celtic.

The final minutes were grim and agonising. PSG made it four courtesy of own goal seven minutes from time when Julian Draxler’s driven low cross was turned into his own net by Lustig.

At four, Celtic would gladly have stopped it there and then. Yet there was more to come, Cavani nodding in a fifth at the back post — the Uruguayan’s second of the night — with five minutes to play.

Celtic fans had their only moment of joy 15 minutes from time. That it came from Neymar’s booking for diving says everything about a night which made the club’s jubilation over a second successive year of Champions League football feel horribly misplaced.