Celtic have to make PSG feel the pressure to stand any chance against '£750m team', says Brendan Rodgers

It is not hyperbolic to state that Celtic Park will be transformed into an arena of worldwide interest on Tuesday night. It is, after all, the declared ambition of Nasser al-Khelaifi to install Paris Saint-Germain at the summit of European football and thus also at the highest pinnacle of the most popular sport on the planet, a quest that will begin in the east end of Glasgow.

“I am sure in two years, three years maximum, everyone will say, ‘Look at Paris Saint-Germain, they did a fantastic job’,” al-Khelaifi told the Telegraph.

Calibration of PSG’s hyperpower ambitions will commence when Neymar, Dani Alves, Kylian Mbappé and their team-mates line up against Celtic for the first instalment of their Champions League campaign. That said, the venue’s regular inhabitants are unlikely to sit, open-mouthed in wonder at the spectacle.

The Hoops support has witnessed victories over the likes of Manchester United, AC Milan and Barcelona (twice), most famously under Neil Lennon when Tony Watt’s strike saw off the Catalan giants - Alves, Leo Messi and all.

Last year Manchester City arrived, intent on setting an English club record for successive victories in all competitions. Pep Guardiola’s men had to equalise three times to leave with a draw. Those performances, although epic in intensity and delivered in one of football’s most resonant settings were, however, the equivalent of guerrilla strikes against the elite divisions of a European game now funded by oligarchs and oil sheikhs, or incorporated as – in the case of PSG – part of sports industry portfolios.

This year Celtic celebrated the 50th anniversary of their immortal feat as the first British club to win the European Cup, a triumph that will never, under current circumstances, be repeated.

“I very much doubt it. I’m optimistic, but always with reality. The game has moved on so much,” said Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager.

“Finances in football now dictate whether a trophy is in Paris or in China or the Premier League. We now have to go through an extra qualification phase next year and that’s for one reason - to give the other leagues with more financial clout an extra place.

“That’s a frustration at a club like this with the history and tradition that it has, but until we get 10 billionaires coming to Scotland it’s what we have to do. Barcelona came here last year with a front three of Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar - you won’t get any better than that.

“But PSG now have a collection of players that are a phenomenal group to play against. It gets better every year and the challenge gets more difficult.

“Of course, for our own performance level and for the nation, we are trying to gain credibility and, obviously, as professionals, we want to continue in Europe after Christmas, but you have to understand the size of the task. It’s not PlayStation - it’s top, top players we are playing. How can you compete with a £750m team?”

PSG have won six successive domestic fixtures in the build-up to their first European outing of the season, scoring 21 goals and conceding only four in the process. Celtic’s domination of the Scottish game is such that they habitually control around 70% of possession, but the statistic is likely to be reversed in this contest.

“You still want to dominate the ball but it’s also about control of the game without the ball,” Rodgers said. “I’m looking forward to that element of it because we very rarely get the chance to do that, but at the highest level you have to be confident on the counter-attack. 

Leigh Griffiths will return in attack for Celtic and Jozo Simunovic is available at centre-back, but this is an occasion that will demand transcendent performances from every Hoops player and, of course, from around 60,000 faithful fans in the stands.

“If you stand off top players, they will play around you, through you and over you,” Rodgers said. “They have to feel that pressure. They have to feel the crowd.

“These are the games where you get the chance to write your story that can be heard worldwide.”

Team details (probable)

Celtic: Gordon; Lustig, Simunovic, Tierney; McGregor, Armstrong, Brown, Bitton; Roberts, Rogic, Sinclair; Griffiths.
Paris St-Germain: Trapp; Alves, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Kurzawa; Verratti, Thiago Motta, Rabiot; Mbappé, Cavani, Neymar.
Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy).