Mbappe and Neymar turn on style as French giants run riot
Celtic Park is called Paradise but it is Paris St-germain who have their Holy Trinity: Kylian Mbappe, Edinson Cavani, Neymar. The MCN. And the new force in European football rolled over Celtic to open their Champions League campaign by laying down a glittering marker to be one of the favourites to win the competition. “They are arguably the best team in the world at the minute,” Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said afterwards. “This is a really special team and they are going to be close to winning it.”
A banner was unfurled proclaiming “The Celtic Renaissance” but it is the rebirth of PSG that is reverberating around the world with the most expensive ever strike-force – costing up to £420million – and the biggest and second-biggest signings, both of whom scored, with Cavani adding two goals. At times, they looked simply awesome. It was supermen against Bhoys. It was that easy. That daunting.
For Celtic it was a sobering lesson. It was also their biggest home defeat since losing by the same scoreline to Hearts… in 1895.
In Group B they will also face Bayern Munich and Anderlecht and will have to play PSG away. There was a shudder of apprehension as to what the tally might be in that return leg for PSG could have scored even more here.
Neymar was particularly wasteful. Thankfully, for Celtic, it was nae mair.
There could be more damage, though, for the Scottish champions with possible Uefa sanctions after a fan ran on the pitch in the first half and attempted to kick Mbappe. Thankfully Mbappe sidestepped him and he missed, by some distance, before being hauled away by stewards. “It should not be anything we should see and the club will deal with it,” Rodgers said.
At times Celtic were the victims of their own downfall. They appeared, as was feared, overawed in the first half, in which PSG cut through them, and overly physical in the second, not least when 18-year-old full-back Anthony Ralston upended Thiago Motta, was booked, and then tried to whip up the crowd to be even noisier. The atmosphere was raucous and relentless throughout with the 1,500 PSG fans also playing their part.
This is a difficult place to come but PSG made it look so easy. Even so there is no need to be too harsh on Celtic. Their team was assembled at a cost of about £20million. PSG’S cost closer to £600million and as much as the home support acted as a 12th man even that was not enough. “They are three or four levels way beyond us,” Rodgers admitted.
Celtic tried to summon the spirit of 2012 when they beat Barcelona or even of last season when they shook Manchester City with a brilliant 3-3 draw but this PSG team have been calibrated for success. They will score a lot of goals. They may concede them also but as much as we will rave about their strikeforce they also have excellent midfielders in Adrien Rabiot and Marco Verratti – with his impressive pass success rate of 94 per cent – who are audacious in the way they play the ball out from dangerous areas.
PSG are determined to be the great entertainers as well as the big spenders and their threat to the European superpowers is gathering. They controlled this game from start to finish. Celtic did not get close. PSG goalkeeper Alphonse Areola was forced into one fine save, turning away Leigh Griffiths’ curling free-kick, and two alert ones to deny Scott Sinclair but the result was never in doubt and certainly not after the early breakthrough.
PSG bristled with intent and then they scored. It was met with a cacophony of boos, not just because Neymar, who had annoyed Celtic fans with his comments while at Barcelona, claimed it but because the home side argued there was a trip on Sinclair in the build-up as the ball was turned over and the excellent Rabiot slid it through. Neymar ran across Ralston, catching him out, and slotted high past goalkeeper Craig Gordon.
PSG kept the ball. Pass, pass, pass. And then bang. A cross was slung from right to left and Neymar headed it back to Cavani who appeared set to score but miskicked only for it to run to Mbappe, who fired into the net from just six yards out. By doing so the 18-year-old became the first teenager to score goals for two different clubs in the Champions League.
It got worse for Celtic. PSG poured forward again, again another cross went into the area with Jozo Simunovic panicking and bundling over Cavani as he attempted to reach it. The defender was booked, the penalty given and Cavani had his turn as he calmly stroked the ball high into the corner.
There was, into the second half, a trio of misses – two from Neymar, who shot over and then wide, and one from Mbappe, whose goalbound shot was blocked – before the pressure told. Substitute Julian Draxler broke down the right and drove a low cross that Gordon cut out only for it to rebound in off Mikael Lustig. An own goal. There would be one more goal, with Cavani reaching Layvan Kurzawa’s bouncing cross acrobatically to steer a diving header back across Gordon.
So it was another special European night at Celtic. But unfortunately not for them.