Celtic’s youth side were given a harsh lesson in the finer points of the game as they crashed 5-1 to Barcelona in the Next Gen Series.
In the shadow of the Nou Camp the hosts turned on the style led by striker Dongou who notched a clinical hat-trick.
Celtic found themselves two down after just five minutes and were never given the opportunity to display the style that saw off Manchester City so convincingly home and away.
Few of the Celtic players did themselves justice with the small but noticeable group of supporters in the Mini Stade given little to cheer about.
Defensive errors led to Patri Gabarron and Dongou putting the homeside two up before Celtic had settled with the video analysis of the match certain to provide uncomfortable viewing.
For a spell midway through the first half Celtic appeared to be playing their way back into the match but before the interval Barca twice came close with the hoops happy to get back to the dressing room only two goals down.
Any thoughts of a comeback were killed stone dead by a double from Dongou in the 54th and 62nd minutes with his hat-trick coming from a Celtic free kick midway inside the Barca half.
Omar Bogle and Darnell Fisher were introduced midway through the second half but Sandro had put the home side five up before Watt scored Celtic’s consolation after home keeper Miguel Banuz had failed to clear a cross from the left.
BARCELONA: Banuz, Edu! Grimaldo, Bagnak, Ayala, Patri Gabarron, Sandro, S Samper, Dongou, Miguel Angel, Quintilla
CELTIC: Thomson; Miller, Fraser, Toshney, Chalmers; Herron (P Twardzik 70), McGregor, Kidd (Bogle 57), F Twardzik, George (Fisher67); Watt
SUBS; Feely, Atajic, Johnstone, Alabi
No criticism of the Young Guns here…just outplayed by a classy side .
The big difference between “Scottish” teams and our European counterparts is in the technical skill side of the game.We try to play a passing game at a slowish pace and the passes quite often go astray.
Watch the Barca. boys….quick, incisive , and …in the main ….accurate passes.
Different world….
coaching coaching coaching… get the people in that can give us the same ( – ish!) results?
JohnD: Having obtained my coaching badges in Scotland…I can assure you …that’s where the problems lie.
Our system is antiquated and outdated….I put more into the courses than I got out….
There is no doubt in my mind…that a “foreign” approach to the basics of the game is what we need.
Fitness is obviously important…but I watch profesional players whose third touch is a throw-in…couldn’t trap a bag of cement….or make a pass over 5 yards…..
what the hell do they do with their time??
Celtic will find it hard to compete at any level as long as they are part of the backward looking Scottish football set up. Our standards in this country are now way below what they should be. Unless we can find some way to achieve those standards we will continue to sink. I hate to think where five more years of £2.4M from TV, against £47m down south will leave us.
I thought it was very strange to be tinkering about with the central defence AGAIN as we did in the first game with Barcelona. This is a key area of the side and throwing in unfamiliar players is surely a recipe for mistakes, so no surprise to me then to see we did just that in BOTH legs….lessons to be learned surely.
I also see that Dylan McGeough wasn’t included in the party at all, yet he was an unused sub v Dunfermline. Even if he is required for the bench at the weekend v St. Mirren (Unlikely to start I would think) why was he not flown out with Marcus Fraser to give the lads a fighting chance.
Like Lennon, John Kennedy is a rookie in management and will obviously make mistakes…hopefully we start learning from them sooner rather than later.
Please dont give us the we’ll learn from this crap im 51 years of age id be abillionaire if i got penny for every time i have heard thist bull from scottish managers coaches and players for as long as i can remember
jimthetim:
Totally agree …I played at a decent level….
and got gubbed on occasion…
all we learned was ….
we got gubbed!!
good article Joe, under difficult circumstances
gutted for the lads
maybe a couple of the goals could’ve been avoided but we were simply outclassed
someone from their side tweeted too that about 4 or 5 of their player were actually 16-17 years old, even tho several looked to be a fair bit older than our lads
Miguel Angel for me was terrific, and of course big Dongou
Marseille match now just a kickaround
but at least we are back in it for the next 2 seasons – some time for improvement !!
Good to see a lot of comments and range of opinion.
The result was very disappointing, no getting away from that.
At the back we’ve had a bad run of injuries with Jackson Irvine badly missed after suffering a bad shoulder injury at St Johnstone on Saturday. Added to Curtis Jones and Stuart Findlay being out injured it left the management with no option other than to bring in Lewis Toshney for his THIRD game of the season and first in two months.
As anyone watching the first team knows the relationship at the back is crucial- up against players of Barcelona’s ability it is even more important.
While the result was a blow the same group of players did very well against Manchester City home and away, and I believe that a younger group of players did even better against City at the weekend.
There is a difficult balance to be struck in youth football. Development is the entire purpose and I’d agree that players develop while winning matches.
In Marcus Fraser, Joe Chalmers, Paul George and John Herron Celtic have an exceptional group of players coming through.
Expecting to see all four in and around the first team is unlikely- perhaps better than having their career stalling sending all four out on loan to one club, perhaps a Scottish First Division club, would give them the best possible chance to come back to Celtic for 2013/2014 season experienced and ready to make a first team impact.
If the first team had got a third goal against Dunfermline I think that Dylan McGeough would have gone straight on- hopefully we get to see him against St Mirren today.