TEN years ago on the same park, it was the team from Scotland who stunned the footballing world. 

A touch of the ball, a swivel on the spot, an opportunistic swipe into the top corner of the net sending Scottish hearts racing as French hopes plunged deeper than the Seine.

It was a moment of magic for the international team via the boot of James McFadden which Celtic looked to emulate again the superstars of Paris St-Germain in the Champions League. And it all looked good for, well, a couple of minutes.

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Moussa Dembele’s shock opener for Celtic within the opening minute, the first goal that PSG have conceded in the Champions League this season stunned the home crowd just like McFadden a decade ago. The only trouble with scoring so early against a team of such class means that there are 89 more minutes to come to hang on.

At least when the Everton forward did so all those years ago, there were but a mere 26 minutes to shut up shop. Celtic lasted eight. And who else would it be but Neymar to pull the superstars of Paris back into the game? His second soon followed, before he teed up another for Edinson Cavani. Just the seven goals against Celtic for the world’s most expensive player in six games now.

Despite the stellar contribution in attack from Neymar’s countryman Dani Alves too, despite his early lapse that led to Celtic’s goal, this PSG team are hardly reliant on the flair of their Brazilian superstars.

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No, this is a team of world-class players assembled with absolutely no expense spared from every corner of the globe. A point proved as one of the only natives in the side, Kylian Mbappe – signed from Monaco for a snip at a mere £166m – added a fourth before the interval.

The Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers spoke before the game about the lack of fair play when it came to the financial disparity between the elite sides and his own, a notion that many of their opponents on the domestic scene back in Scotland might find, well, a bit rich.

But it is hard to argue with the notion that gulf between the 
mega-clubs and the champions of smaller countries like our 
own is, on this evidence, already a chasm, and one that is only going to get wider.

Italian superstar Marco Verratti added a fifth, before Cavani slammed in a stunning volley off the post and that man Alves swerved in a peach of a seventh from distance.

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For all of the eye-popping transfer fees attached to these PSG stars, one man who stood head and shoulders above the Celtic midfield was Adrien Rabiot, who came to the Parc Des Princes as a youngster via a short spell at Manchester City. His progression into a top-class operator was almost heartening among the obscenity of the imported talent around about him.

That was before PSG flexed that financial muscle once again by bringing on Angel Di Maria, their £44m back-up, to give one of their main men a rest in Mbappe, again starkly illustrating the different stratosphere in which they are operating compared to the cream of the Scots.

How on earth do you combat such inequity of talent and the resource that allowed PSG to compile it? There is a school of thought that suggests that Celtic boss Rodgers is too welded to his attacking principles when he takes on the very best.

Shipping seven goals to Barcelona and five previously to PSG at home may suggest there is some truth in that. But would shutting up shop have changed the outcome here? It has hardly worked for many of their domestic opponents during their own 64-game unbeaten run against Scottish opposition.

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And do Celtic even have the players to adopt such tactics? Rodgers did tweak the shape here, with a back three that became a five, but still committed men forward in a style that left them open at times. One thing is for sure, and that is that significant investment – in relative terms to Celtic – must be placed into an accomplished centre-half to allow them to compete in any shape or form in the Champions League group stage.

Dedryck Boyata quite simply had a nightmare, and Jozo Simunovic looked as rusty as you would expect with this being his first game since the win against Anderlecht in late September.

These are solid players at home, and decent players in a wider European context, but limited when it comes to the very top level. But how Rodgers will be hoping to get these two playing together for as many minutes as he can before Anderlecht come to Celtic Park in a fortnight for a Europa League decider. Whether the Celtic manager regrets not pushing the boat out a little in the summer to upgrade in these positions, however modestly, only he could say.

And in truth, with the resources of both the Belgian and the Scottish champions, Celtic will be doing well if they can edge out Hein Vanhaezebrouck’s men and parachute into a competition that perhaps better suits their current level.

There is no shame in that, of course, and Rodgers will justifiably feel that this side he has moulded will have a great shot at progressing to the latter stages of the Europa League should they secure their passage into that competition after the turn of the year.