When Brendan Rodgers walked out on Celtic to join Leicester City in February 2019 he was replaced by Neil Lennon who got them over the line for a fourth successive treble. The next season didn’t go well though and Lennon’s two year spell was soon over. He was eventually replaced by an unknown Australian manager called Ange Postecoglou who left Yokohama F. Marinos to take up the Parkhead hot seat.

Fans were not happy at first but he soon won them over and wrestled the league title back from Rangers before going on to achieve a domestic clean sweep last season. His success was partly down to his knowledge of the J-League, and he was able to tap into a relatively unused market for British teams. He exploited the Japanese market very effectively by snapping up the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate for bargain prices.

Presumably this friendly fixture on July 19th was arranged with the intention of seeing Postecoglou return to Japan to play his old team who are now managaed by fellow Aussie Kevin Muscat. However, Postecoglou moved on to Spurs about a month ago and now Brendan Rodgers is back at Celtic having left Leicester in April.

This was to be the first of two British treble winners playing at Nissan Stadium against reigning J1 champions Yokohama F. Marinos as Manchester City follow suit on July 23rd. Such matches allow for some lucrative friendly matches against touring European clubs and it seems the J-League have even left the schedule clear for these games to take place.

With six Japanese players in their ranks, it was a no-brainer really that Celtic would want to return to Japan for the first time since 2006 when Shunsuke Nakamura was plying his trade for the Glasgow club. The specially erected Celtic merchandise tent was packed pre-match as the locals filled their baskets with commemorative goodies.

I guess I am something of a closet Celtic fan who has been following their fortunes since the mid-80s and so I didn’t want to miss this match in Japan’s second biggest city. I needed to book a day off work for this match though and it was my third time in 2023 to visit the Nissan Stadium (once a year is usually sufficient!) which hosted the FIFA World Cup Final in 2002 and the Rugby World Cup Final in 2019. Previous trips this season were for the Yokohama Derby and the Golden Grand Prix Athletics event. This match seemed like the perfect opportunity to wear my “Nakamura 25” Celtic top from about 15 years ago.

I was just hanging around outside the stadium and enjoying the atmosphere when I bumped into fellow Leicester fan Max. By chance we both had tickets in the same section so decided to head inside and watch it together which was a bonus as I would’ve been on my own otherwise.

As the team sheets were read out and kick off approached it was apparent that the 72,000 seater stadium was going to be far from capacity. I thought I had been quite lucky to get a ticket for this match and rather naively thought it would be about 70-80% full rather than the 30% reality.

There were inevitably a lot of Japanese fans in shiny new Celtic shirts but there were also a fair amount of Scots, and the Celtic fans section seemed to be full of Australian supporters groups with Perth, Brisbane and Sydney all represented.

Within a few minutes of the kick off the home side were ahead as Celtic keeper Joe Hart spilled a shot and Lopes snapped up the chance. A couple of minutes later it was all square as Daizen Maeda scored against his former club. I had been expecting a fairly tight match so was delighted that there had been five goals by the break with the Scottish team just edging it 3-2 thanks to a hat-trick from Maeda.

It was a slower start to the second half but there were still some good chances. Marinos levelled the match around the hour mark, and then stepped it up a bit as Celtic tired and began to wane in the humidity of a Japanese summer. Three more finely executed goals were added by the hosts and things around me got fairly heated as a few drunk Celtic supporters almost came to blows. Who knew that a so-called friendly could throw up such emotions!

At 6-3 the Japanese side were well on top but it’s no real surprise as they are mid-way through their season whilst Celtic are just warming up ahead of the new campaign. An injury time goal for Celtic took the goal tally into double figures, and when the full time whistle blew moments later I made a sharp exit. Of all the friendly matches I’ve been to over the years I can’t remember much about any of them but this ten-goal thriller has a fair chance of living a bit longer in the memory!

Final Score: Yokohama F. Marinos 6-4 Celtic FC

Celtic play another match in Japan against Gamba Osaka on July 22nd before heading back home for friendlies against Wolves and Athletic Bilbao followed by the season opener on August 5th, whilst Marinos return to J1 league action a day after that.

Bonus: Just over 20 years ago I went to Gothenburg in Sweden to visit my mate Hugo for a couple of weeks and one of the things we did was watch local team Gais play a friendly against Celtic who had Swedish legend Henrik Larsson in their ranks at the time.

Perhaps a more memorable football experience on that trip happened on the plane going home when I just happened to be sat next to two former Leicester players (Phil Gilchrist and Russel Hoult) who were then playing for West Brom and returning from a pre-season tour of Denmark where I had a transit. I talked to the former in particular for a good part of the flight but sadly this was an era before the selfie had really been born!

Click here to read ‘I Had A Golden Time At This Athletics Event In Yokohama’

Click here to read ‘Witnessing An Historic Upset In The 102nd Emperor’s Cup Final’

Click here to read ‘Our Own Private Tour Of The Stadium In Yokohama Which Hosted The 2002 World Cup Final’

Click here to read ‘The (Almost) Complete Record Of Leicester City vs. Scottish Clubs (Since 1940)’