The roof fell in on Celtic’s Premier League International Cup hopes when they lost 5-0 tonight to Chelsea at Aldershot’s EET Stadium.
In their previous match in the u-21 competition Celtic had gone down to a narrow 2-1 defeat to Benfica who had already booked their place in the last 16.
With the exceptions of Leo Fasan and Derk Boerrigter all of the Celtic squad qualify to play in the UEFA u-19 Youth League with the age difference apparent as Chelsea raced into a four goal lead midway through the first half.
Next Saturday Celtic face Liverpool but with Chelsea joining Benfica in the last 16 the match at Chester will be of academic interest only.
Joe Thomson joined the injured duo of Mark Hill and Luke Donnelly on the sidelines leaving Aidan Nesbitt and Jack Breslin to step into the holding midfield positions normally occupied by Thomson and Hill.
Having lost just two goals in their previous eight matches Celtic found themselves two down after five minutes as Chelsea hit the ground running thanks to a double from Mukhtar Ali.
Fasan pulled off a few impressive saves to keep the scoreline down but in the 15th minute Charly Musonda put Chelsea three in front with Kasey Palmer adding a fourth with just 22 minutes on the clock.
Boerrigter picked up a knock in the final minute of the first half with Sam Wardrop replacing the Dutchman at the start of the second half.
Regan Hendry carved out a couple of half chances but there was to be no consolation goal with substitute Reece Mitchell scoring Chelsea’s fifth goal from the penalty spot in stoppage time.
In last season’s competition Celtic drew with Everton and Sunderland before beating Villarreal to top their group before losing out on penalties to eventual winners Manchester City in the last eight.
CHELSEA: Blackman; Dabo, Tomori, Clarke-Salter, Wright; Colkett, Ali; Quintero, Palmer, Musonda (c); Abraham
SUBS: Kiwomya, Collins, Mitchell, Colley, Wakefield, Christie-Davies, Conroy
CELTIC: Fasan; Higgins, Kelleher, McCart, McIlduff; Breslin; Nesbitt (Murray 63), Hendry; Archibald (Johnston 71), Boerrigter (Wardrop 46), Miller
SUBS: Wardrop, McCabe, Murray, Payne, Johnston, Lafferty.
Sorry Joe, can’t agree with your comment about the “age difference” Having checked both line-ups our starting average age was 19 the same as Chelsea’s !!!
Even after using 3 subs Our average was 18.6 to Chelsea’s 19….barely worth talking about
We had 12/14 players eligible for the UEFA U19s tourney – they had 11/14 (One of the older players Mitchell came on as a sub with 5 mins to play.
To lose the game in just 5 minutes was hugely disappointing, we should have been expecting Chelsea to start the game with a high tempo…but got totally swamped and some players were out of their depth. Why we bothered with the imposter Boerrighter was baffling…offers nothing at ANY level…whoever recommended him should be sacked. A waster at Ajax and still a waster here..very poor judgement shown.
Certainly Chelsea will be right in the mix for the final stages of this tourney, but this is a level we WANT to be playing at, or at least last 16. We can point to a couple of players missing through injury but equally Chelsea had a handful missing.
Let’s not hide behind a false age differential…..we were outclassed in all departments by the better side. Thankfully Fasan kept the score fairly respectable while Chelsea dropped down a gear but overall a very poor display indeed. Like rabbits in a headlight we hopefully will learn from the many mistakes made ON & OFF the park.
Fair points Willie, I never looked at the ages of the Chelsea team.
Without Thomson and Hill, who have been regulars in the development side it meant some major changes, Nesbitt and Breslin in as defensive midfielders.
Donnelly is also a big loss.
This seems a strange tournament, playing at Aldershot and Chester is no big deal, u-21 club football carries little value, Kieran Tierney could be playing in it in three years time- hopefully he’ll have around 100 first team appearances by 21.
The UEFA Youth League is a better guide, we’ve beaten the champions of Hungary and Finland, next up is a one off game against a runners up from one of the Champions League groups.
No problems Joe,
Most certainly those players would have improved the side considerably, while the inclusion of Derk did the opposite !!
I can only think we are using the tourney to gain further experience for the young guns which in time will stand them in good stead. Hopefully they all learned from the mistakes made. I fully appreciate Chelsea are serious contenders but would like to think we can offer a better challenge should we meet again.
Keep up the great work with the youth reports.