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St Pauli beat youthful Celts in Hamburg sunshine

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Craig GordonA first half goal from Christopher Nothe sent Celtic to defeat against St Pauli in Hamburg today.

With a Champions League trip to Warsaw coming on Wednesday Ronny Deila left the starting XI that had beaten KR Reykjavik at home as he took a look at the younger players at the club.

It was a difficult afternoon in the sun for the young Celts with their frustrations summed up in the 85th minute when Bahrudin Atajic sent a penalty kick over the crossbar.

Tony Watt sent a shot flashing across goal from a tight angle in the 6th minute with Amido Balde’s 10th minute shot from close range held by the St Pauli keeper.

After that early flourish St Pauli began to impose themselves on the game and although they pressed Celtic back Craig Gordon was well protected by Eoghan O’Connell and Stuart Findlay.

In the 38th minute the home side took the lead with Nothe netting after Schachten had dispossessed Filip Twardzik and squared the ball back for the striker to score.

Watt was Celtic’s main attacking outlet, finding lots of space down the left, but had limited options with Balde failing to trouble the home defenders. Lucasz Zaluska replaced Gordon at half-time with Paul McMullan replacing Balde with Watt moved in to play through the centre.

There was little goalmouth play to report on but with a sunny day and two sets of friendly supporters getting together no one was complaining about the quality of the match.

A succession of niggling fouls by the St Pauli players went unpunished by the referee preventing the hoops from building up any momentum as they chased an equaliser.

With 20 minutes left to play half-time substitute Paul McMullan found Watt in space down the right channel but Tshauner in the home goal pushed the striker’s 15 yard drive wide for a corner.

Five minutes from the final whistle Celtic had the perfect opportunity to equalise but Atajic sent his penalty kick over the bar after McMullan had been fouled in the box.

ST PAULI: Tschauner, Buballa, Sobiech, Gonther, Schachten, Buchtmann, Kalla, Görlitz, Bahn, Verhoek, Nothe

CELTIC:  Gordon (Zaluska 46): Herron, O’Connell, Findlay, Twardzik: Henderson, Bitton, McGeouch:  Atajic, Balde (McMullan 46), Watt

SUBS: Zaluska, Waters, McManus, Irvine, McMullan, Fraser, Lindsay

Celtic’s development side, relying largely on last season’s u-17 team won 2-0 away to Turriff United today with both goals scored by Paul George.

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