TAKING on Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League these days must be a little bit like, well, a little bit like playing Celtic in the Ladbrokes Premiership just now.
There is a realisation, an acceptance almost, among opposition teams that no matter how good their players are, how astute their game plan is and how well they perform on the day, the superior quality their rivals possess will always give them an edge.
The league game at the Global Energy Stadium on Saturday was a perfect example of that. Ross County fared about as well as any team had in Celtic’s record-breaking 63-game unbeaten domestic run and looked poised to earn what would have been a richly-deserved point.
Read more: Celtic's Nir Bitton has belief ahead of daunting trip to Paris
Owen Coyle’s team harried Brendan Rodgers’s side from kick-off, prevented them from building up any sort of rhythm on their poor playing surface and limited their scoring chances. A draw wouldn’t have flattered them.
Then Leigh Griffiths came off the bench and intervened. The striker’s exquisite 78th-minute free-kick, the first he had scored since that Russia 2018 qualifier against England at Hampden back in June, snatched a victory which extended Celtic’s lead at the top of the table.
With Aberdeen and Rangers both losing they are now six and eight points ahead of them respectively. There is no prospect of them being caught by either of their nearest challengers or, for that matter, even being beaten. The gulf that exists is vast. Even when they are failing to fire they are just too good.
Motherwell, buoyed by an impressive display and win at the weekend, will travel to Hampden this Sunday for the Betfred Cup final optimistic that, if they do well and their adversaries have a rare off day, they can prevail. Anything, as they say, can happen in a one-off cup tie. But it will be an enormous upset if they do come out on top.
“Celtic are a step above anyone,” said County midfielder Ross Draper. “It’s quite scary how they’re that far above everyone if I’m honest. Credit to them. They dominate and they don’t get lackadais-ical or ahead of themselves.
Read more: Celtic's Nir Bitton has belief ahead of daunting trip to Paris
“You’ve got to concentrate for 90 minutes to get something out of the game. But they’ve got quality throughout the whole squad, starting and coming off the bench. Sometimes you may think they will surely get beaten with a poor perform-ance somewhere, but they keep going. Their 64 games unbeaten speaks for itself.”
Celtic will find themselves in a similar predicament to their fellow Scottish clubs in the Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening when they square up to the superstars of PSG once again in their penultimate Group B match.
A draw will, if Bayern Munich beat Anderlecht in Belgium, secure a European place after Christmas. But having been beaten 5-0 at home by the French side, simply avoiding another thumping defeat and giving a decent account of themselves is the most they can reasonably hope for.
Should Unai Emery’s men, stroll to another victory, regardless of whether they deploy every member of their fabled forward line of Edinson Cavani, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, there will be no disgrace for Celtic – just as there was no shame in Ross County being narrowly beaten by the Scottish champions.
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