Gutted Fraser Forster has claimed that his night of heroics means nothing because Celtic left Barcelona without a point.
The Celtic keeper pulled off two incredible saves from Lionel Messi midway through the second half as the visitors hung on for a point.
Neil Lennon’s side looked on course for a draw until Jordi Alves struck in the fourth minute of stoppage time to leave Forster and his team-mates gutted.
“It’s nice to make saves but they didn’t get us a point so it doesn’t make any difference,” the former Newcastle keeper stated. “I’d have swapped them for a point.
“Everyone is devastated, we worked so hard for 90 minutes then just had to defend one more cross but were unable to do that.
“We showed great spirit throughout the game and showed what we can do at this level and probably deserved a point.
“When you play Barcelona you’ll have a lot of defending. They never stopped for 94 minutes and we got punished. We defended brilliantly all night, everyone gave 100% for the cause, it was devastating.”
Lennon suffered more than most as he came within seconds of a landmark result.
Twelve months ago he was attempting to revive a squad of players that were losing 3-0 to Kilmarnock at half time.
Rather than dwell on the pain nof Alba’s goal Lennon was quick to highlight the quality and ability that his players showed.
“No one gave us any hope but I think we have won a lot of admirers,” the Celtic boss claimed. “They were brave, I couldn’t ask any more from them, maybe just 30 seconds more to see it through.
“It would have been fantastic to pick up something from this game but we didn’t budget for anything from it.
“I hope the players take plenty from the game. It is tough to play at this level but there are no recriminations and no criticism. I think we leave with our reputation intact.
“I’m very proud but I don’t like losing, I never have. Barcelona deserved to win on balance, I understand that. We just needed to see out one more attack but it didn’t work out for us.”
CLICK HERE for Lennon sees the best and worst of Barcelona
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I’m a bit sore, but I couldn’t be prouder.
HH.
I am proud to be a Celt this morning. Against the best team in the world we gave it our best shot, it was a tragic end to the match. Going forward we have a great chance still to qualify from the group. Before the campaign started certain quarters were saying we would get thrashed in every game how wrong they were. if we can get 4 points from the last 3 games we are there. Hail Hail.
Every celtic fan should be very proud of our performence last night, Neil Lennon i salute you and the bhoys
They were good saves, but not incredible, 1st half we managed to ensure he had a fairly quiet time. Only doing what he is paid to do and very good at it which is to be expected from a player of his quality.
No question that Barcelona deserved to win, if we had attacked a bit more we might have scored or got caught out at the back. Tough to take coming so late but asking for trouble sitting so deep and continually giving them possession back cheaply.
We can certainly do much more in an attacking sense, again I’m sure budget for nothing but the obvious flaws in their defence should give us the confidence to get at them more. We dropped 2 points to Benfica due to our failure to push forward enough…we have a chance to resolve that mistake.
Push onto their fullbacks for the full 90 mins and force them to defend, keep our strikers deep….Greatly reduces their attacking options & force the central defenders out wide / to come further forward.