Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers had said “there can be no embarrassment” after the heavy defeat.
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PSG’s Edinson Cavani scored inside the first minute of the match at Parc des Princes stadium against visiting Arsenal to give his squad a 1-0 lead.
The visitors were dramatically handed the chance to level when Scott Sinclair raced forward and played in Dembele who went down as he tried to go round Ter Stegen with referee Ovidiu Hategan pointing to the spot.
Messi opened the scoring with a wonderful drive into the top-right corner from inside the box, then added a second following some lovely link-up play with Neymar, before sealing a hat-trick from close range.
“There’s a lot to take from the game for the players in terms of technique, in terms of simplicity and quality and lots of things to learn for them from the game”. “I definitely think there will be a reaction against Manchester City”, he said. All of the weaknesses in Celtic’s make-up – and there were so many – were ruthlessly exposed.
The Spaniard’s latest words of praise for the Argentine – he has done it countless times before – came after the striker played a starring role as Barcelona demolished Celtic on Tuesday night.
Luis Enrique’s men showed no mercy with their next attack, Neymar and Messi cutting Celtic’s defence to ribbons. Barca’s speed of thought and movement was delicious.
Suarez did eventually get his goal, though, as he controlled another Neymar chipped pass before swivelling and smashing the ball into the roof of the net past a helpless de Vries.
The worst possible start for Arsenal hinted at a potential lopsided affair but the Gunners got out of jail with Alexis Sanchez’s leveller inside the final quarter of an hour.
Iniesta had been introduced at half-time and for all Messi’s magic, the midfield schemer struck the goal of the night with a ferocious volley from Neymar’s cross.
Celtic’s brains were spinning.
With the hat trick, Messi has also extended his goal scoring tally to 86 in Europe’s top-tier competition.
Barca beat Celtic as recently as July 3-1 in a pre-season friendly in Dublin.
Rodgers had said before the game that Barcelona’s front three of Leo Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar might be the best in history and he reiterated that view after a match in which they scored three, two and one goals respectively.
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However, Barca could face further sanctions from UEFA after thousands of separatist Catalan flags were again flown at the Camp Nou.
