It was, in the end, decidedly one-sided. A savage and clinical reminder of the gulf in quality and resources which separates the Champions League aristocrats from the proletariat.

For Celtic there will be no repeat of last season’s run to the last 16. Not even the comfort blanket provided by Europa League football after Christmas.

There will be a third successive Scottish league title but for the nation’s last remaining European representatives a nuclear winter now awaits.

A long, bitter period of recrimination will ask questions of the players signed in the summer. A transfer policy widely lauded in recent seasons has delivered healthy profits but was found wanting against a Milan team in the midst of their worst start to a domestic season in 32 years.

‘We have to improve the squad we have now and we have to improve our recruitment from this year,’ said Celtic boss Neil Lennon.

‘We do have some money and we want to spend it, preferably in the January window.

‘January is a difficult period to bring players in but we need to do that with next summer and the qualification play-offs in mind.

‘We competed, we competed again tonight, but that quality at the top end of the pitch has caught up with us this season. Some of the players have covered themselves in glory and been fantastic through the campaign but it’s been mainly the defensive end of the pitch we’re talking about here.’

But even in defence, Celtic lacked quality.

Milan were a team without a win in seven games, without an away win all season, with a coach on the brink and a support baying for blood.

However, they were also a team which swept into the lead in 13 minutes with a goal of unforgiveable ease and from that instant, they never looked back.

For Celtic the crossing was poor, there was a lack of penetration in the final third and the lack of a natural goalscorer has reaped a pitiful harvest of two goals in five Group H games.

Yet the greatest problems last night lay at the back. All three of Milan’s goals were conceded in slipshod circumstances. A club built on charitable foundations, the home side took their historical origins to heart.

They were a goal down to a header from the imperious Kaka in 13 minutes.

The Brazilian is 31 now but played here like a teenager in the first flush. He was sensational, earning his ovation from the Celtic supporters as he left the field 10 minutes from time.

The generosity of the hosts was a theme of the night. The space he was accorded to nod Valter Birsa’s corner down and into the net was alarming.

Still, Celtic might have made a game of it at the beginning of the second half when the match swung on a critical interlude. It was a sliding doors moment.

One which will have defender Virgil van Dijk tossing and turning in bed for days.

Chasing the quick second half equaliser which would rouse supporters and rattle Milan, Charlie Mulgrew’s free kick from 20 yards struck the wall. Mulgrew swiflty looped the rebound towards a completely unmarked van Dijk eight yards from goal.

The Dutchman had only to guide the ball either side of the keeper and Celtic were level. He had all the time in the world to pick his spot. One of the few summer signings to distinguish himself, you’d have fancied his chances.

He may have been one of Celtic’s best players, but this wasn’t his finest night at either end of the pitch and he thrashed a hurried volley straight into the arms of Christian Abbiati. His team-mates held their head in their hands and Milan breathed again. Massimiliano Allegri’s side swept up the park and won a corner. Celtic should have learned their lesson from the opening goal, but once again a Birsa set piece created chaos, picking out an unmarked Riccardo Montolivo at the back post.

His header across the face of goal badly needed a Celtic boot but landed perfectly for Cristian Zapata to prod home with embarrassing ease from six yards. The game was over, the hosts utterly deflated.

A team more accustomed to inflicting damage from set-pieces, this was a night when they fell victim to successive muggings. One when good fortune was utterly absent.

When Derk Boerrigter did head into the net in 50 minutes the assistant referee’s flag intervened. It was that kind of night, one when little or nothing would go Celtic’s way.

Lennon selected a team designed to attack, a team selected to compensate for their obvious achilles heel and the loss of last season’s top scorer Gary Hooper.

Yet the truth is this: the loss of Hooper and Victor Wanyama has weakened this Celtic team. The evidence is there for all to see.

They managed their best spell in the first 10 minutes, Boerrigter failing to turn a Mulgrew corner in at the back post and Beram Kayal scuffing a terrific chance from 16 yards harmlessly wide.

As Lennon put it afterwards, it was symptomatic of the campaign. Last season, Celtic created few chances and took them all. This season they have created plenty and wasted them.

Not so Milan. With the opening goal, the game changed. A team unable to buy a win in Serie A puffed out their chests and found a swagger in their boots.

As Celtic flailed and thrashed around seeking a way back into the game the visitors looked capable of killing the game – the campaign – dead at any point.

In the first half Kaka’s lightning quick breakaway and surging run ended in a lay-off for Mario Balotelli, who thrashed the ball over the crossbar from 20 yards. Kaka was the player to whom the eye was magnetically drawn. He struck a quite superb right foot effort just inches past the left-hand post of Fraser Forster from 25 yards.

A decent chance for an equaliser fell to Mulgrew on his favoured left foot in 36 minutes after some tenacious scuffling from Commons. Surrounded by Milan defenders, the Scotland midfielder sidefooted a feeble, powerless effort from 15 yards straight at Abbiati.

And from a Celtic perspective it was almost the tale of the night. Van Dijk’s golden opening after half-time demonstrated the cruel, savagery of Europe’s premier competition.

In the end Milan settled for three, Balotelli slipping an easy finish past Forster after a long route one Montolivo ball prompted more defending of the Keystone Cops variety.

Celtic could have little complaint. They can be grateful for small mercies. In seeking the cause of their Champions League demise a large mirror is all that’s required.

—Daily Mail