AYE, but can they do it on a wet Wednesday night in Glasgow? Visitors to Celtic Park last night got the answer to that age-old question as Pep Guardiola brought the millionaires of Manchester City to town. As it happens, City were pretty damn good. But they weren't any better than Celtic.

Guardiola had been replaced by Tito Vilanova by the time Tony Watt sealed a 2-1 win against his old team here back in 2012. He may have thought he had dodged a bullet.

But if he thought is all-conquering City side could roll Celtic over as efficiently as Barcelona did at the Camp Nou a fortnight ago then he was to be sadly mistaken. His Parkhead payback arrived against an outstanding Celtic side who halted his perfect start to the season at 10 wins in all competitions, preserving Tottenham's all-time record in the English game.

Read more: Jubilant Celtic boss Rodgers hails his "bully" Dembele after Manchester City drawThe Herald:

Presumably the Catalan's efforts to turn these big-spending Mancunians into Barcelona also include giving him choice of kit design. City arrived in Glasgow in the kind of garish number redolent of Barcelona training gear for the first Champions League group stage match to be played on Scottish soil since a 3-0 reverse to AC Milan in this stadium in November 2013.

The miserable weather had done little to dampen the enthusiasm of a crowd which included former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher. While he has spoken in the past of a fondness for Celtic, it was his high-flying City he was really here to see.

Read more: Jubilant Celtic boss Rodgers hails his "bully" Dembele after Manchester City draw

Who knows what he was thinking when an Oasis anthem advised him to 'Roll with it' afterwards, but the atmosphere crackled pre-match and it was a nice touch when grainy images of the first round tie against Zurich on the Lisbon Lions' run to European glory was beamed up on the scoreboard beforehand. Knowing the history is one thing, but Celtic have designs on being a player in the present and future of European competition and nights like this emphasised that they still can be.

Minus the injured Kevin de Bruyne and rested John Stones, this was City at their full £420m best. Rodgers, who never lost to city in home matches with Liverpool, kept the one current Manchester City player in his ranks, the on-loan Patrick Roberts, on the bench, while another two with City connections, Kolo Toure and Scott Sinclair, put in sterling performances of their own. But it was Moussa Dembele, a 19-year-old on the radar of pretty much all the top four clubs in England before joining Celtic in a cut-price £400,000 cross-border deal who was to grab the headlines. By the time this match was out, he had an even dozen goals to his name this season. Scouts across Europe will have taken notice.

Guardiola has some interesting ideas about football alright. But they aren't all infallible. Attempting to hold a ludicrously high line from a free kick some 35 yards out was asking for trouble, and Sinclair's clipped ball was perfect for James Forrest's deep run from out wide. His first-time cross was helped goalward by Erik Sviatchenko and Dembele, a marginal offside, did the rest. When Toure almost had the ball in the net from a second early set piece, City were reeling.

Guardiola loves to convert a midfielder to central defender and stationing Aleksandar Kolarov there means he can tiptoe forward and lash shots at goal like the one which would have gone harmlessly wide had Fernandinho not been alert enough to control it and tuck away the kind of low finish which Sergio Aguero would have been proud of. Celtic had led for all of eight minutes.

After Luis Suarez in the previous match day, Brendan Rodgers came up against another of his former mainstays in the form of Raheem Sterling. The Englishman, recipient of a text of encouragement from Rodgers after his flop at Euro 2016, was nothing if not involved.

Read more: Jubilant Celtic boss Rodgers hails his "bully" Dembele after Manchester City draw

At first, when he inadvertantly wrong-footed Claudio Bravo from a low Kieran Tierney cross at the end of a sweet Celtic move, it appeared that he would help his old gaffer to an unlikely victory. Like all good players, there was a reaction: eight minutes later he was shifting feet cleverly to steer in a second City equaliser from Silva's pass, after Dembele for once sold Scott Brown short with some slapdash hold-up play.

Half time brought respite for the senses but not for long. Kolarov miscued a clearance from a Tierney cross and Dembele's overhead finish found the corner. City piled on and Nolito rattled in their third equaliser after Craig Gordon had defied a Sergio Aguero shot.

There was still time for a late chess match between the managers, Guardiola bringing on £50m defender Stones to go two at the back, and Rodgers piling Leigh Griffiths on alongside Dembele, but City could find no further way past a thoroughly validated Gordon. Twenty five group stage games and still just three defeats: this famous old stadium, and this formidable new team, had just claimed another victim.