Lionel Messi overtakes Ronaldo to top Champions League hat-trick list

“The likes of Messi, Neymar and Suarez have goals in them so for us we needed to defend well, but obviously we didn’t and we needed to work on the counter”.

The unsafe Brazilian looked up and clipped an inch-perfect ball to the onrushing Iniesta on the edge of the box, who rifled a devastating volley into the top corner without breaking stride.

Neymar set up Messi to score twice in the first half hour at Camp Nou before the Brazil striker struck from a free kick just after halftime.

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.

“They couldn’t have come to a more hard place in world football after the highly intense game [Rangers in the Old Firm] 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”.

The Argentine forward only took three minutes into the game to smash in a goal against the Scottish visitors – the first in a series of bangers that highlighted the Catalan club’s supremacy in the European stage. “Professionally it is never nice when this happens”, said Rodgers.

“We lost the second goal very quickly after that which was disappointing”. Robert Lewandowski opened scoring in the 28th minute, Thomas Müller made it two on the stroke of half-time, Jimmy Kimmich made it five, thanks to his 53rd and 60th minute brace, before Juan Bernat made it a fiver on the stroke of full-time. “They have done that to much better teams than us”, he said.

This was Celtic’s heaviest ever defeat in Europe even before Neymar assisted once again for the seventh, for Suarez.

As Neymar teed Messi up to smash home the opening goal after three minutes and laid on the pass for the Argentinian’s second strike later in the first half, there was no sign the feted trio had lost any of their nearly telepathic understanding.

“The ball moves like it’s on an ice rink, and they move as fast as that”, Rodgers said.

Having taken just three points from a pool containing Barca, AC Milan and Ajax in 2013, they were hoping for a good start to build on their weekend derby win over Rangers.

“I think if you look back on the first half, we’ve defended really well”, said Brown, who was one of the few to get pass marks.

PSG coach Unai Emery added: “I am not happy with the result but I am happy with how we played”. This will be a brilliant learning season for us in the Champions League. “[You can learn a lot] when you’re playing against big players and one of the best players in the world and you have to see what they’re doing”.

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“No team likes to lose like that but this won’t hamper us in any way”.