Ten minutes later it was 4-0 Barcelona as Neymar delivered a super cross onto the right boot of Iniesta, whose explosive volley found the back of the net, before Messi tapped a Luis Suarez cross home for five less than two minutes later.
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There was no rain but there was a flood of goals at the Camp Nou, where a sparkling Messi hat-trick with four assists and a goal from Neymar, Andres Iniesta and a Suarez brace humiliated Celtic.
“Messi’s the best in the world in every position”, the Barca coach said in his post-game news conference.
“They’re spending hundreds of millions of pounds on great, great players”.
“It is tough when you lose so many goals”.
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 worldwide again to make it 2-0 shortly before the half hour mark.
Meanwhile, it is was a much-needed win for the Barcelona to return from the shameless defeat in the last match against 2-1 defeat to Alaves. The match has now been rescheduled to be played at 19:45 BST on Wednesday.
The three South Americans lined up together against Celtic for the first time since last season’s King’s Cup final. The top scorer Brazilian in Champion League Games is Kaká, with 30 in 11 seasons.
The torture just got worse. We can still get better though, our communication and understanding of each other is improving all the time.
“You can’t be too downhearted”. We are not playing for ourselves, nobody is looking for personal glory.
Wenger had words of praise for Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina, chosen over Petr Cech.
“It is hard to say anything about him (Messi) which hasn’t been said”. You watched the game?
Meanwhile, in Munich, Carlo Ancelotti’s men strolled to a commanding 5-0 win over Rostov. “We all know the quality of the trident”, Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic said.
Milik arrived from Ajax in the offseason to replace Gonazalo Higuain, the Argentina forward who sought a better chance of Champions League success at Juventus. Even the older ones will learn from that and that will make us a better team. “All we can hope is that they keep scoring like that”.
Benfica were held 1-1 at home by Besiktas when one of their own players scored late for the visitors.
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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.
