Celtic lost out in heart-breaking fashion to Galatasaray after a penalty shoot out was needed to decide the outcome of the Antalya Cup.
After a goal-less 90 minutes in which an incredibly youthful Celtic side gave as good as they got James Forrest was the fall guy in the shoot out missing the third penalty with every other taker scoring.
Liam Henderson, Nir Biton, Bahrudin Atajic and Amido Balde all scored from 12 yards but it wasn’t enough to give the hoops a famous victory against Roberto Mancini’s side.
Cork bhoy Eoghan O’Connell was given his first top team start while Marcus Fraser made return after 11 months sidelined due to cruciate ligament surgery. The full-back slots were filled by midfielder John Herron at right-back and Darnell Fisher on the opposite side.
The midfield and attack had a slightly more familiar look with Forrest and Derk Boerrigter supplying the width, Biton and Henderson anchored the midfield behind Amido Balde and Teemu Pukki.
It was the youngest ever bench named by Celtic with Neil Lennnon having to call in four players from the u-17 squad that were in Turkey for a training programme to join Leo Fasan, Joe Chalmers and Bahrudin Atajic.
Pukki had the ball in the Galatasaray net in the fifth minute but his celebrations were cut short by an offside flag given against Balde.
After that bright start it was the Turks that set the early pace with Lucasz Zaluska called on to make a number of impressive saves.
The baby-faced hoops began to settle into the match with the pace of James Forrest and Derk Boerrigter carrying the main threat to the Galatasaray defence.
On the half hour mark Balde was chopped down 25 yards from goal but Boerrigter’s free-kick failed to trouble goalkeeper.
Three minutes later Boerrigter sent in a brilliant cross from the left but Pukki was unable to connect with it at the front post with Forrest stretching the Galatasaray defence to centre for Boerrigter but the ball was just beyond the Dutchman’s reach.
Galatasaray changed their entire team at the interval with Wesley Sneijder among those introduced while Celtic stuck with their starting XI.
Six minutes after the restart Bitton gave substitute keeper Muslera a fright when he tried his luck with a 50 yard shot that almost slipped in under the crossbar.
The Turkish side did show some moments of class but were getting no change out of a brilliantly drilled Celtic defence with the midfield four happy to drop deep to suffocate space for Sneijder and co.
Forrest was revelling in his free role and almost set up Balde for a goal in the 79th minute but after racing on to a defence splitting pass his shot was touched over the bar by Muslera for a corner.
CELTIC: Zaluska; Herron, O’Connell, Fraser (Chamers 63), Fisher; Forrest, Biton, Henderson, Boerrigter (Miller 83); Pukki (Atajic 63), Balde
SUBS: Fasan, Breslin, McLaren, Caird,
GALATASARAY: Eray, Eboue, Ceyhun, Emre Can, Dany, Hajrovic, ?brahim Co?kun, Yekta, Yi?it, Ayd?n, Amrabat
SUBS: Muslera, Hakan Balta, Sneijder, Riera, Selçuk, Melo, Semih, Emre Çolak, Burak, Umut, Bruma
Satin-saying d’oh