Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar combined to devastating effect as Barcelona swatted Celtic aside 7-0 at the Nou Camp to lay down a marker in Champions League Group C on Tuesday (Wednesday NZ time).
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“Torrential rainfall across Manchester throughout the evening led to flooding in the areas around the ground, which forced the decision on safety and security grounds”, City said in a statement.
Messi blasted home a powerful left-footer after just three minutes to give the home side an ideal start in their first group match, following a pass from strike partner Neymar, before the Brazilian fed the Argentine global again to make it 2-0 shortly before the half hour mark.
It was a “harrowing night” for Chelsea’s players and a “sobering” one for Rodgers, whose efforts to keep Barca at bay with five at the back failed badly, says Michael Grant of The Times.
“We’ve beaten Barcelona and AC Milan before at home, so here’s hoping we can focus on that and try to get three points on the board as quickly as possible”.
“But at the level we played at tonight it would have been hard (for any opponent)”. “Everyone is disappointed in that changing room”.
“We did so many things well”.
He said: “This will be a brilliant learning season for us in the Champions League”.
And Messi made the save doubly important two minutes later when he took advantage of another pass from Neymar to stab the ball home from close range to make the score 2-0.
“It didn’t matter who we had in front us, I remember a beauty and precision that was of another class”.
The first goal of the 2016/2017 Champions League group stages came after a mere 42 seconds from the head of Paris Saint Germain striker Edinson Cavani at the Parc des Princes against Arsenal. It was bad enough losing 6-1 here.
Champions League records, once believed to be impossible to attain, have kept stumbling after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo took to the pitch.
“We all know the quality of the trident”, Rakitic said, via the club’s Twitter.
“No team likes to lose like that but this won’t hamper us in any way”.
“For me, he’s the best player of all time, both for the number of goals he scores and for his footballing vision”.
“There can be no embarrassment because they do that to better teams than ourselves, [but] it’s obviously a disappointment”, Rodgers said.
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“It’s always going to be really, really tough in your next game to probably the best possession team in the world”.
