Nice coach Patrick Vieira has admitted that his side struggled to deal with the ‘intensity’ of Celtic during their friendly clash at the Groupama Stadium on Thursday, when speaking to the club’s official website.
While the Hoops were made to wait until the second half to grab a much-deserved equaliser in France, their best spell in the game arguably came during the first 20 minutes.
Odsonne Edouard had a brilliantly-taken goal ruled out for offside following some dazzling build-up play from Ryan Christie early on, before missing a glorious chance when he skewed a header wide of the target.
Vieira, the former Arsenal captain, has admitted that his Nice side were taken aback by the way a ravenous Celtic sprinted out of the blocks during their first outing since March 7.
“It was an interesting match for us. The first quarter of an hour was tough – we were troubled by the physical impact and intensity that the Scots put into the game and we struggled to get into it,” says France legend Vieira.
“We will need to improve in that area. But it’s a match that will help us to progress.”
Nice did weather the storm and eventually took the lead thanks to a brilliant individual effort from Kasper Dolberg, who slalomed away from a series of challenges before skimming the ball into the corner; a goal reminiscent of exactly why the former Ajax wonder-kid has been compared to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Thanks to a howler from the home goalkeeper and a first-ever Hoops strike from Patryk Klimala, Celtic can celebrate a deserved draw as their preparations for 2020/21 get underway.
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