Celtic 2-3 Barça: Quality Wins the Day
By: JT | February 20th, 2008
What a match. From a Celtic supporters’ perspective it was on the edge of the seat stuff. Barcelona brought their A+ game tonite, and Celtic stood toe to toe with them.
Four glorious goal were scored by Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Lionel Messi, Barry Robson, and Thierry Henry.
The winner was the ugliest of all as the ball ricocheted off a couple Celtic defenders into Messi’s path and he finished with his customary class.
At the end of the day, Barca’s quality was just too much for Celtic to handle.
Barcelona played incredibly fluid football, and really the only position where Celtic got the better performance was in goal.
The Catalans were quicker in thought and action throughout the nite, but Celtic managed to keep it tight through guile and determination.
There is no reason to hang your head if you’re a Celtic supporter. Tonite is one to be proud of the club as a whole, because every player and supporter gave 100%.
I’m spent at the moment, that was draining to watch. I’ll wrap up more completely tomorrow.
It wasn’t a victory, but tonite is certainly a nite to celebrate if you’re a fan of the club or Scottish football.
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Great match, from all sides by Barca and Celtic. Celtic showed they belong in the top class in Europe, and Barca showed that they are favorites in this competition for a reason. The back line of Celtic is still a bit suspect, especially in Europe when they can’t depend on Hinkel. But considering they played this game without one of their most influential players in Scott Brown, Celtic and their fans should be proud of the performance.
PS – Barry Robson for Scotland. That lobbing header was sick.
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The back line is still suspect, but anyone would have been run ragged the way Barca played tonite, anyone at all. i though Caddis settled in well though, and was stunned to see Wilson at such an early stage considering he hasn’t seen the pitch in like five months.
Yeah, I’m not sure what feed you were watching Ian, but one of the commentators on mine kept saying Robson knew nothing about it. Yeah, OK, that was exquisite. I was surprised Hartley went off for Donati though, I thought Robson was playing with fire regarding a second yellow.
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As a side comment, this whole tie has been the most civil match-up I’ve seen for a while.. starting with Laporta’s comments and right here up to the blog posts.
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JT – I was watching a crap feed online, while the Arsenal match played on TV. Celtic-Barca should have been the match of the day … after all, during the group stages, Rangers-Barca was (a 0-0 of course). I agree that that attack would have stifled any back line, I just meant that they’d be stronger with Hinkel. Great match, and I’m going to watch it again tonight at the pub.
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Joe, I think there are a whole lot of similarities between the clubs, and that’s what makes their relations amicable. They both stand for something more than just football to their supporters. Its a cultural thing, I think.
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im catalan by the way matt
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Hi from Barcelona! Great match, the Celtic supporters are fantastic, great attitude before, between and after the match. Sorry, but i think that in Barcelona ist’n not easy for you. Good luck in league. Força Barça. Força Celtic.
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Thanks Rafa. On today’s evidence, Barca will be trouble for anyone that crosses their path. The positive for Celtic is that Barca played incredibly well, Celtic made many uncharacteristic errors, and the match was still mighty close.
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Jerry,
Are you aware that the player who won Barca’s last Champions League title developed to become the legend he is at Celtic, right? Hmmm, so much for a club that gets rejected eh?“YOU ARE MY LARSSON, MY HENRIK LARSSON!”
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JT,
Not sure the errors are uncharacteristic. The back line has always been suspect and while it might not hurt us too much in the SPL, Caldwell and Naylor and Big Mick to some extent today, need to get their collective heads out of their asses. Every clear either bounced off another Bhoy or straight to a Barca player. I am excited for next year for Hinkel in the CL and I think he will be a key for three in a row!Over and over we will follow you!
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Unfortunately, the mistakes from the back four have become commonplace like you said, they can usually recover in the SPL. We’ve come to expect them. Hinkel in Europe will be a great help as will a new partner for Mick. In some ways I think they got caught up trying to play Barca’s game of short incisive passes rather than just getting the ball out of danger as quickly as possible.
What I was really thinking of was some of the atrocious passing in the midfield and some of the weird short passes that Hartley was making close to the back four. I think he got Celtic into a lot of binds with some of the stuff he was doing. Naka was guilty on many occasions as well. Stuff you normally don’t see. But in the end it was probably a result of Barca’s superb movement which could have had anyone spinning like a top.
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henrik who?did he win anithing at all apart the spl?not exactly footballer of the year!with this im done see you in spain !!!!!
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I didn’t think it was our best passing performance, but certainly not our worst. It is easy to look bad when every Barca pass hits it’s man in stride on his foot. The entire team is filled with incredible passers!
While I feel slightly like we let a great chance get away, I still don’t feel the usual sting of a loss. I am very proud we continued to push after that first goal and didn’t pull a Hun and kick the shite out of them every time they got the ball and put everyone in the back. I think we showed we can score against them and if we can sure up the defense, a 2-0 result is not out of the question in a few weeks time!
Hail hail!
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Seriously Jerry, your idiocy knows no bounds.
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What a match. Celtic held their own against the best attack Barca has put together this season. Very few teams would have been able to deal with that kind of pressure and all credit to Boruc for a fantastic match (see my post when it goes up for more on that).
The Celtic fans were amazing. ESPN had them mic-ed up just right and it was awesome to hear them singing even when they were down. That wouldn’t happen in Spain, I don’t think. Unless they were negative chants. I am already excited for the return leg! It’ll be really, really tough for Celtic to get beyond us after this game, but they have a shot and I think it’ll be a very open, very exciting game as Celtic take it full steam to Barca. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Henrik Larsson is as much a part of true Barca lore as he is a part of Celtic lore. He was instrumental in our wins in 05-06 and as far as I know, Jerry is the only Barca supporter that doesn’t love Larsson to death. Absolutely to death. I’m sure Celtic supporters were very sad to see him go when he went, just as I was sad, if not so attached, when he left FCB.
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