Kieran Tierney held his own as he came up against legendary right-back Dani Alves in Celtic’s Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
Kieran Tierney won’t take too much pride in being part of a defence that suffered Celtic’s biggest home loss since 1895.
Yet, the highly-rated left-back deserves some credit for restricting Brazilian counterpart Dani Alves to a marginal role in proceedings as Paris Saint-German smashed in five without reply at Parkhead on Tuesday evening.
Alves, who won the Champions League three times with Barcelona and reached the final with Juventus last season, was not at his rampaging best on the right hand side with Tierney going toe-to-toe with a full-back who was won almost everything worth winning in the club game.
In a game where Celtic were made to look, in the words of Brendan Rodgers, like ‘Under 12s’ (BBC), Tierney coped and can take some degree of credit for his display.
And coming up against a player like Alves should be an inspiration for the homegrown 20-year-old. After all, if Tierney wants to fulfil his potential, there are worse role models he could pick.
Alves is the epitome, perhaps even the inspiration for the modern full-back, more an attacker than a defender and blessed with technical ability that would make the world’s greatest wingers green with envy.
Tierney, an attack minded full-back with a wand of a left boot, is certainly cut from the same cloth and watching someone who is an undoubted legend in his position at close quarters should only help Celtic’s prized asset develop his game further.
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