Barca defeat puts Celtic out of the Champions League

Celtic’s dream of advancing to the last-16 of the Champions League was put to the sword by Barcelona with a 2-0 defeat at Celtic Park.

Two goals from Lionel Messi did the damage for Barca as they coasted home in Glasgow.

The Scottish champions required a win against the Spanish champions, and also for Man City to lose to Borussia Monchengladbach, in order to advance. Neither necessary requirement took place, leaving Celtic bottom of a very tough Group C.

Messi unleashed the first meaningful effort of the tie, getting onto a Luis Suarez backheel, only to see his shot deflected back out by the defence.

The Argentine magician was bearing in on goal again before ten minutes were up as Sergio Busquets dinked a clever pass over the top of the Celtic defence to the star man, only for the legend to allow the ball to skew off his foot and go dead – an early warning for Celtic.

A third chance came for Messi on the quarter-hour mark as Jordi Alba cut back inside from the left and found the striker in the middle only to curl his effort wide and right.

It was no surprise when the opener finally came and it was also no surprise that is came for Messi. Neymar clipped a lovely ball over the defence for Messi in the six-yard box to dink past Craig Gordon to the bottom-left corner with his fourth chance of the tie.

Moussa Dembele gave Celtic their first real chance, facing up to Gerard Pique, before cutting inside and firing at the nets, where Marc-Andre ter Stegen gathered at the second time of asking.

It was a brief reprieve before Barca again exerted pressure. This time Messi turned provider, crossing from the right for Suarez to head point blank at goal, with only a stunning save from Gordon keeping the effort out.

Celtic could have levelled it after the break as Callum McGregor took advantage of a loose crossfield pass from Sergi Roberto only for the winger’s left-footed effort to be too tame to truly trouble Ter Stegen.

The Glasgow side had their tails up and Dembele had a golden chance to get them off the mark a few minutes later. James Forrest chipped into the striker unmarked seven yards out only for the headed effort to lack any real power and fall nicely for Ter Stegen to claim.

But when you don’t take your chances in soccer you get punished, and punished Celtic were. Suarez went down in the box under pressure from Emilio Izaguirre and the ref pointed to the spot. Messi stood up to hammer down the middle to make it 2-0 and put Celtic very much up against it.

Messi came within inches of his hat-trick with 20 to go. Neymar skipped inside Mikael Lustig before playing wide to Messi to beat Izaguirre and drag his shot just right, as Celtic began to cling on for dear life.

The game was all but gone for Celtic at this stage and Suarez almost put the final nail in their coffin as he was played in by Messi six yards out, but losing his balance as he shot, the Uruguayan could only direct his effort against the right post and wide after an incredible bit of setup play by Messi. Four minutes of added time were given to set up Celtic with the chance of a miraculous comeback but try as they might they went down to the better team.

Photo(@Getty Images/Paul Ellis)

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