MOUSSA FINDS IT GRIM UP NORTH

A TRIP back in time 12 months is required to place the stratospheric rise of Moussa Dembele in perspective. A year ago this week the young forward was cutting a forlorn figure on Teesside as his Fulham side toiled to a 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough. The grim northern English town’s grotty smoke stacks were the inspiration for scenes in the sci fi movie Blade Runner. The local ‘geysers of filth’ were memorably described by director Ridley Scott as being ‘beautifully like Hades’. Fast forward 12 months and Dembele can now be found in Paradise, with Celtic Park’s nickname depicted in banner form by the Green Brigade for all to see last night. Little did Dembele (right) know as his side kicked off against the Germans that 90 minutes later Parkhead would feel more like hell. The Frenchman approached the game in the form of his young life, having swapped slumming it in the English Championship for the multimillionaire’s playground of the Champions League. He had wasted no time in using European football’s most prestigious club competition to carve out a name for himself as one of the hottest young strikers on the continent right now. If his two goals here in the 3-3 draw against Manchester City caught the eyes of the wider public, Dembele already had local-hero status assured in one half of Glasgow. That came courtesy of scoring the first Old Firm league hat-trick in 50 years in a 5-1 rout of Rangers last month. It was the start of a flurry that would yield nine goals in eight games for Dembele, who also scored another two in two matches for France Under-21s. It was little wonder that Real Madrid, Arsenal, PSG, Spurs and Bayern Munich are all monitoring his progress. Or that a player who arrived for £500,000 in the summer was quickly bracketed by Brendan Rodgers in the region of £15million — a fee the Celtic boss says would just buy his star man’s big toe. Visiting defender Andreas Christensen had warned his team-mates facing Dembele would be as frightening as tackling Lionel Messi or Sergio Aguero. Hamburg’s Lewis Holtby, a former team-mate of Dembele’s at Fulham, warned Celtic fans their new hero will be gone by next summer. So all eyes were on the 20-year-old powerhouse last night. Yet while Dembele would go on to have a hand in the opening goal, it was not in a way anyone would have imagined at kick-off. Taking a pass from Nir Bitton on the left flank after the break, the striker gave away possession cheaply. And after a patient passing move that appeared to have fizzled out, Andre Hahn robbed Kolo Toure to set up Lars Stindl to crack in the vital opening goal. It was a sour moment for Dembele, if not quite of the magnitude of his penalty miss in the Nou Camp in the 7-0 defeat by Barcelona. But it was a frustrating evening for the forward, who was marshalled superbly by no-nonsense Dane Jannik Vestergaard. Rodgers turned to his deputy, Leigh Griffiths, who was on a run of eight goals in eight games when he suffered the injury that gave Dembele his chance in the team. But a killer second from Hahn after more poor defending by Toure ensured a defeat that seriously undermines Celtic’s chances of securing third. Before the match, Hahn was described by his manager Andre Schubert as a ‘monster’ in big games and he had unquestionably overshadowed Celtic’s very own physically imposing brute. The anguished expression on Dembele’s face at full-time told its own tale. He may even have been pining for Middlesbrough.