CELTIC came up against a Paris Saint-Germain team who are potential winners of the Champions League this season due to the money they have spent once again this week.

It was, let’s face it, unrealistic to expect the Scottish champions to win or even draw the game over in the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.

But was it unreasonable to expect them to give a better account of themselves than they did? Was doing better than 7-1 really asking too much?

I would have thought not on both counts.

I was hoping the team would at the very least emerge from their penultimate Group B game with a bit of credibility and sadly that just didn’t happen.

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Celtic certainly started off brightly. For the first 10 minutes or so they played pretty well. They took the lead through a very good Moussa Dembele goal at a corner. Then it all unravelled.

Neymar and Edinson Cavani scored a brace each and Kylian Mbappe, Marco Verratti and Dani Alves all got in on the act. It made for difficult viewing.

What the game drove home for me is that when Celtic play away from home in Europe, particularly against one of the top sides, their approach has to be more cautious.

I know they played very positively against Anderlecht over in Belgium earlier this season and it worked for them. They romped to a sensational 3-0 win.

But that was Anderlecht. PSG are a different proposition altogether.

You have to concentrate on curtailing the amount of space and time on the ball that top class sides on the continent have - and then try to do something on the occasions when you have possession.

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If you fail to do that against sides like PSG then the consequence is, as we saw on Wednesday evening, that you will be taken apart. Celtic had the spirit and belief knocked out of them.

I thought Rodgers’s team selection and shape was fine. I could see where he was coming from with both. But it appeared to me as if they were trying to score from kick-off. I felt they were far too open.

As a team, Celtic have to take a more cautious approach. Parking the bus isn’t strictly necessary. But having been turned over by Barcelona, Bayern Munich and PSG in the last couple of seasons now a change is definitely required.

Rodgers is a clever manager. But he can’t afford his side to keep suffering such heavy defeats when they play top teams. It will become demoralising for them.

You still have to fancy Celtic to get the result they need against Anderlecht at home in their final Group B game in a fortnight and qualify for the last 32 of the Europa League.

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However, if they go through to the knockout stages of that competition and draw a reasonable team, as there is every likelihood they will, then they will have to take a different approach away from home. For me, there has to be a far greater sense of realism in their play.

I also feel the Celtic defenders have to be more commanding going forward. They made far too many mistakes and were punished for it. I am not saying they are bad players. But you have to show more conviction at that level.

Mikael Lustig going off injured early on certainly wasn’t ideal. But would it have changed anything if he had stayed on? I doubt it. His replacement Nir Bitton wasn’t culpable for the defeat.

Rodgers started with Jozo Simunovic at centre half alongside Dedryck Boyata even though the Bosnia and Herzegovina defender hadn’t played in nearly two months.

His last competitive game before Wednesday night had been the 3-0 victory over Anderlecht in Belgium way back at the end of September.

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With hindsight, maybe he shouldn’t have been involved. It was asking a lot to throw him back in against a team which fielded Cavani, Mbappe and Neymar up front.

I am sure that many supporters think it was the wrong thing to do given that Celtic ended up losing by a 7-1 scoreline.

But I could understand why Brendan thought that Jozo, a specialist centre back, was a far stronger option than Bitton, who is normally a central midfielder, against such strong opposition.

On reflection, possibly Bitton, who has done well in his first team performances, would have been the better option.

But I expect that Simunovic – if, that is, he stays fit - to retain his place at the back alongside Boyata for the Betfred Cup final against Motherwell on Sunday.