NEIL LENNON remained upbeat, despite the 4-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the French capital.
The Celtic manager insisted there were many positives to be taken from the performance which saw them get off to the worst possible start by losing a goal to Kylian Mbappe in 55 seconds.
The French giants, who had scored 16 goals in their previous two warm-up outings against second-tie Le Havre and Belgian outfit Waasland-Beveren, are way ahead of the Parkhead men in their pre-season preparations and have a French Cup Final against St Etienne to face in 48 hours’ time.
With PSG leading 2-0, Christopher Jullien thumped a header against the woodwork seven minutes before the interval and three minutes after the turnaround Ander Herrera thumped in the third.
Substitute James Forrest forced an excellent save from the keeper and had another effort that crept just wide of the upright with Patryk Klimala, who came on for Odsonne Edouard, just too slow to poke it home.
Lennon, speaking to Celtic TV, said: “We were playing against a world-class side. We didn’t get off to the best of starts, but I thought after that, for about 30/35 minutes, we were a match and we played some really good football.
“I’m so disappointed we didn’t get a goal because I thought our play deserved one.
“But that’s as stiff an examination as you’re going to get, so in terms of a working exercise on the physical side of the game, the mental side and the concentration side of it, that’s as good as it gets. I’m really pleased with a lot of aspects of the game.”
He added: “It was really tough for the players and then PSG changed their full team at half-time. I think some of our players needed the game.
“The players have only really had one full game going into this one, so I think they’ll benefit from it.
“It’s a been a terrific quality of teams that we’ve played over the last four or five days and I think that’ll stand us in good stead going forward.”
The Hoops opened the mini-tour with a 1-1 draw with Nice last Thursday and lost 2-1 to Lyon at the weekend.
