Nick Pope makes blunder in pre-season thumping
Celtic ran riot against Newcastle United as they claimed a 4-0 victory in Saturday’s pre-season friendly.
Newcastle went into the clash at Celtic Park on the back of a 4-0 win over Carlisle United in their opening pre-season game last week, but Eddie Howe’s team were convincingly beaten by the Scottish champions, who benefited from a huge error from Nick Pope.
Arne Engels opened the scoring with a 28th-minute penalty before Johnny Kenny doubled Celtic’s lead, latching onto a long ball that was misjudged by Pope, presenting a clear path through to an open goal.
An early second-half effort from Yang Hyun-jun put the game to bed before Liam Scales added a fourth for the hosts with a fine header from Kieran Tierney’s cross.
Newcastle, who have been at the centre of much transfer speculation this week regarding the futures of Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak, showed some threat, particularly through Anthony Gordon and debutant Anthony Elanga, but they failed to find the back of the net.
Celtic have one more friendly, against Ajax on Thursday, ahead of their first league match against St. Mirren, while Newcastle will now travel to Singapore to face Arsenal.
