Despite a typically mighty and impassioned effort by Celtic in front of their
own legions they could not replicate last year’s legendary victory over
Barcelona, falling at last to a late header by Cesc Fàbregas.
They were left pointless and bottom of Group H and will also be deprived of Scott Brown for their next fixture against Ajax – who drew 1-1 at home with AC Milan on Tuesday night – after the captain was dismissed for a second-half challenge on Neymar.
They were left pointless and bottom of Group H and will also be deprived of Scott Brown for their next fixture against Ajax – who drew 1-1 at home with AC Milan on Tuesday night – after the captain was dismissed for a second-half challenge on Neymar.
Once depleted, Celtic would have been beaten by three or four goals but for a
series of breathtaking blocks by Fraser Forster from Alexis Sánchez and
Neymar, interventions which must make the goalkeeper a contender for the
England No 1 spot.
In an act of faith in the men who lost 2-0 to AC Milan in the San Siro on the
opening day of group matches, Neil Lennon named the same side and formation,
except that Kris Commons switched to the left and Georgios Samaras was
brought infield to the line striker role and Anthony Stokes deployed to
support the spearhead.
Meanwhile, Gerardo Martino made three changes to the Barcelona side. Lionel
Messi, injured in the visit to Almeria on Saturday, was absent, as was
Alexis, Javier Mascherano, Carles Puyol and Jordi Alba, while Marc Bartra,
Xavi and Pedro all started after making appearances as substitutes against
Ajax in the Spanish side’s opening game of this season’s Champions League
campaign.
Fàbregas took Messi’s place as the 'phantom No 9’ of a three-pronged attack
with Neymar to his left and Pedro wide on the right. Marc Bartra started
alongside Gerard Piqué in central defence with Adriano at left-back behind
the formidable midfield trio of Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Andrés Iniesta.
Barça took the kick-off, which was the cue for two minutes of sustained
possession during which Celtic got two touches, neither of them controlled,
before the Catalans won the first corner of the night as Virgil van Dijk
broke up a cute attempt by Neymar to spring Iniesta free in the six-yard
box.
The hypnotic effect was somewhat marred when Dani Alves ballooned his finish wildly into the jeering ranks of Hoops fans in the Jock Stein Stand.
Celtic’s first attempts to escape from the stranglehold were rushed and clumsy but Samaras swiftly posted notice that he had his European head on when he took a pass from Commons and drove at the Barça back line to force Victor Valdes into the first big save of the evening, as he turned the effort around the post for a corner kick.
The pattern was thus established, with Celtic pumping the ball towards their Greek battering ram as he drifted to their left and Barcelona positioning their lance, Neymar, on their left flank.
There was an element of gambling about Lennon’s tactics as he played a high defensive line, calculating presumably that Fàbregas lacked the incisive burst that would take him beyond the back four.
The risk was that with Pedro on the right or Neymar opposite would break through on the end of one of the long angled passes from the Barça midfield, a feature of Martino’s regime.
Lennon, for his part, had drilled into his player the need for total concentration, all the more so in the opening stages given Barcelona’s reputation for battering the will out of opponents long before the interval.
Half an hour passed with a familiar template re-established. Barcelona had controlled 71 per cent of play but of the three direct attempts on goal, Celtic had delivered two.
That statistic changed just before Monsieur Lannoy blew for half-time, when Fàbregas struck an angled free kick from the right edge of Celtic’s box just under the crossbar, but Forster responded to his manager’s call for decisive interventions with a strong parry to send the whipped ball wide of the mark.
The contest was abruptly tilted against Celtic just before the hour mark at the very point when the game opened out when a high pressure zone developed to the front of Valdes’s area. The risk was that the Scottish champions could be skewered on the counterattack and they were – though not in the manner anticipated.
Neymar was sprung free inside the Celtic half, tracked by Brown who finally tripped the Braxilian for a foul that deserved a caution but was seemingly transformed into a straight red by an extra flick of the Celtic captain’s boot. This was a stunning blow which at once deprived Celtic of their principal source of power in midfield and excluded Brown from the next group stage game, at home to Ajax on Oct 22.
For quarter of an hour – during which Neymar was excoriated for every touch – the green and white ranks held fast in front of Forster but they were undone by a Barca substitution when the relatively anonymous Pedro was replaced by Alexis.
Within a minute Neymar sent the Chilean scampering free to hang a cross towards the heart of the area, where Fàbregas hung in the air before looping his header beyond the exposed Forster to finally silence the most cacophonous crowd in Europe.
The hypnotic effect was somewhat marred when Dani Alves ballooned his finish wildly into the jeering ranks of Hoops fans in the Jock Stein Stand.
Celtic’s first attempts to escape from the stranglehold were rushed and clumsy but Samaras swiftly posted notice that he had his European head on when he took a pass from Commons and drove at the Barça back line to force Victor Valdes into the first big save of the evening, as he turned the effort around the post for a corner kick.
The pattern was thus established, with Celtic pumping the ball towards their Greek battering ram as he drifted to their left and Barcelona positioning their lance, Neymar, on their left flank.
There was an element of gambling about Lennon’s tactics as he played a high defensive line, calculating presumably that Fàbregas lacked the incisive burst that would take him beyond the back four.
The risk was that with Pedro on the right or Neymar opposite would break through on the end of one of the long angled passes from the Barça midfield, a feature of Martino’s regime.
Lennon, for his part, had drilled into his player the need for total concentration, all the more so in the opening stages given Barcelona’s reputation for battering the will out of opponents long before the interval.
Half an hour passed with a familiar template re-established. Barcelona had controlled 71 per cent of play but of the three direct attempts on goal, Celtic had delivered two.
That statistic changed just before Monsieur Lannoy blew for half-time, when Fàbregas struck an angled free kick from the right edge of Celtic’s box just under the crossbar, but Forster responded to his manager’s call for decisive interventions with a strong parry to send the whipped ball wide of the mark.
The contest was abruptly tilted against Celtic just before the hour mark at the very point when the game opened out when a high pressure zone developed to the front of Valdes’s area. The risk was that the Scottish champions could be skewered on the counterattack and they were – though not in the manner anticipated.
Neymar was sprung free inside the Celtic half, tracked by Brown who finally tripped the Braxilian for a foul that deserved a caution but was seemingly transformed into a straight red by an extra flick of the Celtic captain’s boot. This was a stunning blow which at once deprived Celtic of their principal source of power in midfield and excluded Brown from the next group stage game, at home to Ajax on Oct 22.
For quarter of an hour – during which Neymar was excoriated for every touch – the green and white ranks held fast in front of Forster but they were undone by a Barca substitution when the relatively anonymous Pedro was replaced by Alexis.
Within a minute Neymar sent the Chilean scampering free to hang a cross towards the heart of the area, where Fàbregas hung in the air before looping his header beyond the exposed Forster to finally silence the most cacophonous crowd in Europe.
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