Premier League champions Leicester City secured a penalty shootout victory over Celtic after a 1-1 draw in normal time in the International Champions Cup (ICC).

Riyad Mahrez netted within seconds of the second-half whistle, but Leicester were pinned back when Eoghan O'Connell found the corner from long range on 60 minutes.

After five perfect penalties from each side, James Forrest was the first to be denied after a big palm away by Kasper Schmeichel as Daniel Amartey downed the Scottish league winners.

The Champions of English and Scottish football locked horns north of the border in the first match of the USA/Europe section of the ICC. 

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers—who faced a rocky start to his managerial career in Scotland following a humiliating defeat in the UEFA Europa League to Gibraltan opposition—came up against an English outfit for the first time since Liverpool sacked him.

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri named a near-full-strength side at Celtic Park, including Mahrez, Danny Drinkwater and new signing Nampalys Mendy.

John Hartson felt the fixture would provide his former club with a true test of their potential:

With 11 minutes on the clock, the Foxes should have opened the scoring. Algerian winger Mahrez embarked upon a fine dribble before setting up England's Euro 2016 absentee Drinkwater on the right of midfield. The defensive-minded playmaker swept a dangerous ball behind Celtic's back four towards Leonardo Ulloa, but the Argentine attack could only shoot wide of goal. 

Mahrez was the star performer throughout the contest and showed his world-class talent during the early stages of the clash. Physics-defying control, wonderful trickery and whipped shots continued to bamboozle and confuse his relevant opponent. Any potential move away from the King Power Stadium was put to the back of his mind ahead of this pre-season affair.

Leicester City provided pictures of their key man in full flight:

With eight minutes to play until the half-time whistle, the Bhoys were handed their best chance of the half to break the deadlock after Moussa Dembele was brought down 20 yards from goal. Leigh Griffiths struck a fine drive towards the target, forcing back-up stopper Ron-Robert Zieler to parry the effort away from goal.

Former Leicester striker Gary Lineker is still delighted to see his boyhood club surrounded by the elite of European football: 

Forty seconds into the second period, the Premier League holders were in front. Mahrez collected the ball on the right wing 40 yards from goal before darting towards the corner of the box. Jinxing right to left, the PFA Player of the Year’s movement was hypnotic, and O'Connell and Emilio Izaguirre had no chance after Mahrez cut back onto his left foot.

With time and space to take a clean strike at goal, the attacker bent a sumptuous effort into the far top corner and reeled away to celebrate the game's opener.

On the stroke of the hour mark, Celtic pulled level through O'Connell. After a blocked shot rebounded out to him 25 yards from goal, the defender waved away protests to slot a placed effort into the bottom corner of the net.

Sky Sports Football provided the footage of the calmly taken goal:

Despite it being a pre-season friendly, both sets of players remained hesitant to push on to find a decisive second goal, safe in the knowledge that a draw would force an immediate penalty shootout.

Danny Simpson's whipped cross in the dying moments almost set up a stoppage-time winner, but Japan international Shinji Okazaki could only head over the bar from inside of the area as penalties loomed.

With Celtic selecting to take the opening spot-kick, Nadir Ciftci netted the opener neatly, before Christian Fuchs slotted into the corner. Mikael Lustig, Scott Allen and O'Connell all netted for Celtic, but Marcin Wasilewski, Drinkwater and Ben Chilwell completed their tasks too.

Ryan Christie found the bottom corner for Celtic's fifth, only for Okazaki to drill his strike past Craig Gordon. However, Forrest missed the first sudden-death effort, only for Amartey to crash his winner into the top corner.

Post-Match Reaction

Celtic manager Rodgers was pleased with the performance of his side against the 2015-16 Premier League winners, hailing his team's mentality. Per BBC Sport, the ex-Liverpool boss revealed he was hoping to recruit one of his former players in the coming days:

It was an excellent game. For a pre-season game it was at a good level and good intensity. Leicester looked fit and strong and ready for another challenge.

We were excellent, Mahrez scored a fantastic goal but our reaction was really good. The mentality we have tried to create is a winning one. Even in pre-season that's important.

We came from a goal behind and that is important. Hopefully Kolo Toure will be signed by Sunday and he will be great for us. I bought him to Liverpool and he did great, he looks after himself and is in good condition. He will be a valuable player for us.

On the other side of the dugout, Ranieri was also focused on transfer speculation, claiming his belief that key man Mahrez would still be at the club by the start of the upcoming campaign. Per Yahoo, he was quoted as saying:

I'm confident, of course (on Mahrez's future). We know very well there are other teams who must win the Premier League. We just have to defend it. I changed him at last because I said 'okay, his job is done, it's better to avoid injury'. I'm very happy, we have a very good dressing room. The players who came in are very good.