Boss Brendan Rodgers insists Celtic’s season will not be derailed by the 7-0 Champions League thrashing they suffered at the hands of Barcelona on Tuesday night.
Advertisement
Barcelona were in total control, but Celtic should have been level after 24 minutes when goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen brought down Moussa Dembele who broke into the box.
Messi became the Champions League’s highest scorer of hat-tricks in Barca’s 7-0 rout of Celtic as he netted his sixth, one more than Cristiano Ronaldo, prompting Enrique to state the No 10 could do it all, regardless of where he played.
This was Celtic’s heaviest ever defeat in Europe even before Neymar assisted once again for the seventh, for Suarez.
The Parkhead skipper said: “Everyone is disappointed in that dressing room”.
He added: “It’s a heavy defeat”.
“We came off a defeat that hurt us a lot for the way in which it came about but there is always an opportunity to quickly change that image, those sensations in the next games and today the team did that from the first minute”, said Iniesta. Whenever you lose as a professional it is tough to take but [my] players have been brilliant.
“We didn’t do well enough on the ball, they kept giving it back and they are entitled to score, they are a great team”. When we got it, we kept giving it away.
“They scored a very early goal – a great finish by Messi – but we nearly managed to get ourselves back into the game, we missed a penalty and Scott Sinclair had a goal disallowed for off-side. They couldn’t have come to a more hard place in world football after the highly intense game [against Rangers] at the weekend and to have hardly any preparation time against the world’s best at keeping the ball; they beat you up with the football at times”.
“Their front three are exceptional – their movement, their vision, their calmness on the ball – but we need to defend better from the front, midfield and the back”.
The German global has now saved three out of four penalties in the Champions League for Barca.
Last season’s beaten finalist Atletico Madrid won 1-0 at PSV Eindhoven in the other group game.The goal by Saul Niguez came late in the first half.
“Leo Messi plays at every position, he has freedom to do so because he is the best in the world at any position he plays”, Luis Enrique said. “We were intense and it’s a great night for the fans, rounded off by the record”.
Advertisement
“I know we miss it but that is football”.
