Scott Brown has fond memories of playing at the Parc Des Princes, and he is hoping that they stay that way after tomorrow night. The Celtic captain will lead his team out at the stadium to take on the might of Paris Saint Germain over 10 years since his only other appearance at the venue in one of Scottish football’s most iconic evenings.

The Scots scrapped and battled their way to a single goal victory on that occasion of course, thanks to some tremendous goalkeeping from Craig Gordon, some heroic defending, and a moment of magic from James McFadden which has gone down in the annals of history.

And yet, Brown feels that such is the might of Celtic’s opponents tomorrow night, a win over Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and company would rank higher than that victory over the likes of Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet and Nicolas Anelka. In fact, he believes it is the hardest game in world football at the moment.

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“A win on Wednesday would be a bigger achievement than the victory with Scotland because of the money they’ve spent and they want to win the Champions League,” said Brown.

“They look like the team to beat so if we go over there and get any sort of result it will be fantastic for us.

“It’s the hardest game in the world right now and then go straight into a cup final and then play the following midweek against Motherwell again - well done the SPFL for that.

“But I can remember that night well with Scotland in the Parc de Princes. I ran about silly for 90 minutes, got three touches of the ball, defended really well and Faddy scored an unbelievable goal.

“Craig Gordon told me he assisted but that about sums up the night. They were the best team in the world at the time and we went over as underdogs and defended for our lives.

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“We created a couple of chances, nothing major, and Faddy scored that unbelievable goal from about 40 yards out.

“Everyone was telling him to control the ball and keep it but somehow he managed to put it in the back of the net and it will go down as one of the best nights in my Scotland career.

“The gameplan was to defend for 90 minutes and kick anything that moves - it suited me perfectly.

“It’s up there with the best results of my career overall because we were playing against top quality players.

“We had two right backs in me and Alan Hutton, nobody went forward, and we were up against Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka.

“We took a man each and defended and hoped they wouldn’t get past us. We did a good enough job to get away with that 1-0 and Craig Gordon was brilliant again in goals.”

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As successful as Scotland’s rather crude strategy turned out to be on that famous night, as well as in the home victory over the French earlier in the same campaign thanks to a sucker punch goal from Gary Caldwell, it won’t be forming the blueprint for Celtic’s own grand plan to sack Paris.

Under Brendan Rodgers, Brown stressed that there will be an onus on the Celtic players to attack when they can and express themselves on the ball, and be confident enough to take the game to their immediate opponent.

To that end, he believes that James Forrest, who produced an electrifying display in the last Champions League match against Bayern Munich at Celtic Park, may well be a key figure.

“It’s not all about miracles,” he said. “It’s about playing hard and playing smart as well and we’ll have to do that again.

“We understand it’s going to be hard in Paris, but we know we have to try and express ourselves as well and you’ve got to be brave.

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“We have a manager who likes us to go and express ourselves in the final third, and if I ever get in there I’ll let you know how that goes.

“He puts demands on the front three or front four to express themselves high up the park, or go and take somebody on one-on-one.

“For me, James Forrest with the way he has been playing this season, if anyone is going to do it then you have to believe it will be him. He’s got the pace to do it and he’s got the quality to score a goal as well.

“We have got Moussa [Dembele] and Griff [Leigh Griffiths] who are scoring goals, and Moussa is doing it for France and Griff is doing it for Scotland as well.

“We have players doing it at the highest level.

“There is no bigger occasion than going away from home in the Champions League against one of the best teams I’ve ever played against.

“We need to demand the ball from our team-mates and try and play a bit as well.”

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Brown’s impression of tonight’s opponents, as you might expect, was rather favourable from the 5-0 mauling they dished out at Celtic Park, and he is hoping to get a bit closer to the most expensively-assembled team in world football this evening.

“Their pace stood out at Parkhead and when they attacked they did it with six or seven bodies,” said Brown.

“They were willing to leave one v ones at the back and two v twos so that showed their belief in each other.

“They were playing one and two-touch in their own box against five of our men. We were trying to press but there comes a point where you have to back off and let them have the ball sometimes.

“We need to be a bit more aggressive and get closer to them. Their midfielders dropped deep to get on the ball and went in areas you don’t want to go into as a midfielder.

“They create space for the front three and the movement of the front three was phenomenal. You’ve got to get that bit of luck as well and as well as defending well if we get a chance we need to take it.

“We’ve got to believe in ourselves. This is the fittest Celtic team I’ve played in and we’ve got to press them high and try and force them into a couple of mistakes.

“They’re on a couple of hundred grand a week and they will make some great passes at time and that’s when we need to dig deep.”