Celtic crashed to the fourth defeat of their German tour with Union Berlin running out 3-0 victors in the capital tonight.
The result was never in any doubt with Celtic finishing the match with youngsters Mikey Miller and Jackson Irvine in defence.
Both players had flown out to Berlin on Thursday to link up with the first team squad having played for the Development Squad in the 2-1 win at Inverness Clach on Saturday.
Scott Brown made his first appearance of the tour and lasted an hour with Tom Rogic probably the most impressive Celtic player on the pitch.
Playing at their new look Stadion An der Alten Forstere Union took an early lead when Simon Terodde smashed a 20 yard drive beyond Fraser Forster.
With Virgil van Dijk, Adam Matthews, Joe Ledley, Gary Hooper and Charlie Mulgrew watching from the stand the young Celtic side struggled to impose themselves as the home side were roared on by the majority of the 20,000 fans in the stadium.
Celtic survived to the break without any further loss but ten minutes into the second half a corner from the home side wasn’t properly cleared allowing Soren Brandy to net from close range.
The visitors did put together a couple of chances with a header from Irvine in the 66th minute almost producing a goal with Bahrudin Atajic and Liam Henderson introduced in the final quarter.
There was to be no consolation however with Damir Kreilach heading in a third goal for the home side in the 87th minute.
UNION BERLIN: Haas – Pfertzel, Eggimann ( Stuff 46), Schönheim, Kohlmann ( Parensen 78) – Kreilach – Ozbek, Mattuschka ( Koehler 70), Dausch – Brandy ( Skrzybski 70), Terodde ( Nemec 70)
CELTIC: Forster; Lustig (Miller 46), Irvine, Wilson, Izaguirre; Forrest (Amido 47), Brown (Kayal 61), Rogic, Commons; Samaras (Atajic 70), Stokes (Henderson 82)
SUBS: Zaluska, Henderson, Atajic, Miller, Findlay, Kayal, McGeouch, Amido.
The one thing that’s really annoying me when reading the write ups after these friendlies on various Celtic fans websites and the official Celtic website is the constant mention that we had a few youngsters playing.
From someone who has watched all the recent friendlies its not the youngsters that have been a problem within the team, its that not one of the regular starters from last season has shown up well in any of the games. No form, or an ability to play a position. So please stop all this nonsense about the youngsters in the team. The game kicked off tonight with a strong Celtic side.
The first half performance was shocking again.
Here’s hoping we spend some of the millions we now have to put some pace, physical presence and energy into the team.
Hail, hail..
Also we’ve been playin against fairly weak opposition. Our team has been terrible.
Like the young Bhoys let’s hope Lennon can get his first team together sooner that later Hail Hail Hail
Agree with tonybhoy, the problems pre season have not been the youngsters in the team, the “senior” players have been very poor.
We have to get rid of this stupid notion that pre season results don’t matter. They DO matter. Winning becomes a habit and so does losing. We have played five games so far and lost the lot (inc the closed doors game v Crewe). That is not good enough and I cannot recall a worse series of results pre season. When did Celtic last lose FIVE matches in a row?
It’s time to get the finger out and stop making excuses. Pre season has been a chastening experience. It has been an embarrassment. The team need to shape up and quickly.
On the positive side….things can only get better!
Hail Hail.
They don’t matter and that’s a fact, we never have a good preseason and the last one we did was under Mowbray and he never lasted the season so I don’t think it matters a will take defeats all preseason as long as we win when it matters, the press love it when we lose these games and some fans bite and jump on the bandwagon, tomorrow the record will have a cracked crest and it will be doom and gloom. By December you won’t be able to tell me who we played and the score in the preseason games that’s how much they matter HH
This Wednesday will give us some notion of where we are.
Looks like we had a more than decent team on the park.
I can understand the angst, but seriously, if you were a first team players playing a pre season friendly with CL and a full season of spfl and cup games on the immediate horizon would you be stretching yourself?
Let’s put it into perspective Bhoys.
The youngsters are going to give there all in the hope of breaking through and these ‘wee teams’ are playing their guts out in what, for some, will be the biggest game they play in their careers.
Btw, excuse any typos today, sitting under a white parasol in the garden punching letters into my big baw face on the tablet!!
HH
I’m just glad I never renewed my premier sports package. Our first game is next Wednesday. The German tour was merely training matches.
I agree tonybhoy.Why open the write up with “the result was never in doubt” then mention the young lads. Irvine was one of our best players, he never put a foot wrong the whole game and Miller only entered at half time. Maybe our Full Internationals should shoulder some responsibility??