Facing Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar is no picnic for even the best of teams. However on Tuesday night, Celtic found themselves on the end of a right pasting from Barcelona at the Nou Camp, losing 7-0.
Ironically, the defeat, which was the Scottish side’s heaviest-ever in Europe, comes in the 50th anniversary season of their famous European Cup triumph in Lisbon.
Messi opened the scoring after just three minutes, but Celtic then had a chance to equalise, only for Moussa Dembele to fluff his lines from the penalty spot.
Messi would ultimately go on to bag a hat-trick, his sixth in Champions League history, while Neymar and Andres Iniesta (via a cracker) netted one each and Suarez got in on the act via a late brace. Brazilian Neymar amazingly racked up four assists as well!
Here are the goals (Celtic fans look away now)….
Barcelona 7 – 0 Celtic; All goals pic.twitter.com/SiagLqykYI
— Maha (@eldoniniesta) September 13, 2016
Quite an exhbition!
After the game, a chastened Brendan Rodgers said:
In the first half we had a critical moment in the game with the penalty and if you score that it makes it a bit nervy here, after they lost at the weekend.
But second half we ran out of legs, the game at the weekend added to their immense quality made it very difficult.
The scoreline at the end is bitterly disappointing. There are lots of things to learn for our players.
To be fair, despite some poor defending from the Bhoys, there’s no shame in taking a beating at the Nou Camp!