Neil Lennon was delighted to find Celtic drawn with Barcelona in the Champions League.
Spartak Moscow, including Aiden McGeady, and Benfica make up Group G but it’s the return of Lionel Messi that will light up the autumn for the hoops support.
“It was very exciting to be involved in the draw,” Lennon admitted. “To be in the group with Barcelona is tough but it’s a real glamour game for the club and the other two sides are huge clubs in their respective countries.”
“We’ve played against all three teams recently, we met Barcelona and Benfica in the Champions League and knocked out Spartak Moscow in a play-off.
“It’s a tough tough group but I think that all the teams play good football so it should be attractive to watch. I’ll take it as it comes, see how the fixtures come out but it’s fantastic to be here and we’re going to make the most of it.”
It’ll be the fourth time that Celtic have played Barcelona in the last ten years with Celtic winning once, drawing two matches and losing three times.
The most recent meeting between the two clubs was in the 2007/08 season with Barcelona winning 3-2 at Celtic Park then beating Celtic 1-0 in the Nou Camp.
Earlier that season Celtic exchanged 1-0 wins with Benfica before going through on matchday 6 alongwith AC Milan having picked up nine points.
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To reach the group stage Celtic had to beat Spartak Moscow in a qualifier with the hoops winning on penalties after two 1-1 draws with the Celtic goals coming from Paul Hartley in Moscow and Scott McDonald at Celtic Park.
haha.. (spoiler) im the only super optimistic believer in the vote above that thinks we’ll finish 1st… to be fair ive been celebrating the draw with a few shandys laced with jack d but we can dream cant we?! Not the worst group but very exciting, great nights ahead!! HH!
ReJoyce! We are there!
I honestly never thought that we would be on this stage again for a long long time given how much more difficult it is for SPL teams to qualify but, and let’s be honest here, we did receive favourable draws in the qualifying and no-one can begrudge us a bit of luck given some of the howlers we have had before.
I genuinely think we have a chance to at least drop into the Europa League. The pessimist in me doesn’t even want to contemplate facing Barca at the Nou Camp especially if it’s a meaningful game for them.
Lenny has certainly brought the thunder back to Paradise as promised. The atmosphere was fantastic all night long and the roar when they played ‘Zardok The Priest’ over the PA at full-time sent a shiver right down my spine.
Now we can look forward to some last day excitement in the transfer window and have a laugh at Jim White’s beelin’ coupon!