All it had to do was reunite its trio of superstars.
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Messi dazzled against the Scottish champions as he became the first player to score a hat-trick for the sixth time in the Champions League.
Luis Enrique believes Lionel Messi would be the best player in the world wherever he plays on the pitch after watching the Argentine score the 40th hat-trick of his career in Barcelona’s 7-0 win against Celtic. “We all know the quality of the trident”, Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic said.
“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”.
Messi opened the scoring with a wonderful drive into the top-right corner from inside the box, then added a second following some attractive link-up play with Neymar, before sealing a hat-trick from close range.
“Professionally it is never nice when that happens”, Rodgers said after the game, “these are top class players and they have done that to much better teams than us”.
“There have been a lot of games where we haven’t been together – we’ve been on holiday, Neymar was at the Olympics”, he told TV3. The shared 131 goals last season, with Suarez leading with 59.
Messi and Neymar were reunited with Luis Suarez from the start for the first time this season and took no time in getting reacquainted as all three were on the scoresheet.
“But, of course, not long after that they got the second goal and I think in the second half we ran out of legs to be honest”.
A brace from Luis Suarez and one each from halftime substitute Andres Iniesta and Neymar rounded out the scoring for Luis Enrique’s side. The players had fun, and that allowed the Barça supporters to have fun.
Captain Scott Brown described the 7-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona as “unacceptable” as he reflected on a nightmare second half which ended with the club’s record defeat in a European match. “The ball moves as if it is on an ice rink and they move as fast as that, they are high-level, top players with big belief and that is why they are what they are”.
“This is a competition which is going to be a brilliant learning season for us”.
“There can be no embarrassment because they have done it to better teams than ourselves”.
“To lose five goals in 45 minutes is unacceptable”.
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“They are very special players, they have incredible movement and speed and stopping them is very hard because they are world class”, he said.
