Barcelona v Celtic

Barcelona v Celtic



Barcelona

Injuries - Puyol, Pique, Alves
Suspended - Busquets

Probable XI - Valdes, Montoya, Mascherano, Song, Alba, Fabregas, Iniesta, Xavi, Alexis, Messi, Villa (4-3-3)


Celtic


Injuries - McGeouch, Nouioui
Doubtful - Commons, Forrest, Wilson
Probable XI - Forster, Lustig, Wilson, Ambrose, Izaguirre, Mulgrew, Wanyama, Brown, Ledley, Samaras, Hooper (4-2-3-1)



Optimistic Celtic fans will go into this match rightly saying that Celtic are unbeaten in Europe this season after securing qualification into the group stages with impressive home and away wins in Helsinki and at Helsingborg. They followed that with a fantasic start to their group stage campaign securing a well earned draw against Benfica and then managing to take an unfancied 3pts back from Moscow (abeit with the aid of a red card). However, despite these recent improvements on their travels, people with a slightly longer memory will not have forgotten about that shockingly bad away record Celtic have in Europe. The hard facts are that the win against Spartak Moscow was their only win in their last 27 away matches in Europe proper (W1 D6 L20). So, probably the last place in europe you would want to be going to improve that record is Camp Nou where Barcelona are unbeaten in their last 17 Champions League home matches (W14 D3). Still Celtic's domestic form has been really good this season, if we ignore the hiccup against St Johnstone, they have gone all other games this season so far undefeated but some would argue this is to be expected in the SPL where they have a far superior squad to any rivals.


Clearly facing Barcelona is a daunting task, in my humble opinion Barca are still the best team in the world and best ever with arguably currently the 3 best players in the world in Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. In terms of ball retention, passing ability and vision I think you will struggle to see any better than Iniesta and particularly Xavi who is often the unsung meastro but only because Iniesta and Messi shine so brightly. If there are 2 better midfielders than Xavi and Iniesta in my era then simply they have not been born yet, as these guys are that good! I don't have to talk about Messi as it is all there to see, he is a freak of nature and has been the top scorer in the Champions League for the last 4 seasons in a row. Almost without fail he delivers in every, and I mean every, game he plays in breaking record after record in his extrodinary career. 

If there was to be any glimer of hope for Celtic it would be that under Tito Vilanova, he has made Barca slightly more open at the back, in part due to injuries I suppose, but they are definately a little more vunerable now than they were under the charge of Pep Guardiloa. Vilanova has a more, "we'll score more goals than you" attitude and to be fair they normally do. There have been a few examples of this already, last time out against Deportivo it ended 5-4, at Sevilla it was 3-2 and on the opening night of the group stages they won a shot-out style game against Spartak Moscow 3-2 also. I imagine they will go with the partnership of midfielders Mascherano and Song in central defence again but mind you Mascherano is probably now more experienced in defence than in the middle of the park. Dani Alves will also misses the match so youngster Montoya is likely to step in at right back. These are the area that Celtic need to target if they get the chance as the defence will also not have the protection of Busquets who normally sits and holds letting the attacking players do what they are best at.

The shape that Lennon used in Moscow was a bit of a surprise from his usual 4-4-1-1 away tatics, he deployed more of a 4-2-3-1 formation using strangley Mulgrew and Wanyama to sheild the back four. Commons and Samaras give the width leaving Brown to roam free and add support to Hooper which oddly I reckon suits his style of play as he is not the best at sticking to a certain area of the pitch instead he chases the ball (some would say like a headless chicken....lol)
Anyway it wouldn't surprise me given the success they had in Moscow that Lennon tries this formation again.

However, I am a realist and the gulf in class between the 2 teams here is basically as big as you are likely to see in the Champions League this year. Barcelona have embarrassed and hammered far better teams than Celtic in the Champions League and I think if Celtic can escape with their dignity that might well be a good result. Their biggest worry apart from the possession that Barcelona will have is their passing accuracy, put simply they should be able to pass the ball around Celtic with ease. Messi is scoring for fun again this season and it is difficult to see any match where he is not going to net at least once. The attacking pace that Barca have whether the start with Pedro or Alexis out wide together with Villa will be too much for Celtics cumbersome centre halfs and I can see them being hopelessly exposed on numerous occassions. There should be no debate, well apart from may be in Glasgow's east end, as to who is going to win this match but instead I will focus on how many team goals Barcelona can score. It has been over a year since Celtic have let in more than 3 goals in any match but I think tomorrow night they may well be out of their depth without any armbands.......



Prediction : Barcelona 5-0 Celtic


BET : Barcelona team goals over 3.5