Neil Lennon saluted his Celtic players despite falling at the final hurdle to a 94th minute goal from Jordi Alba that gave Barcelona a 2-1 win.
For 27 minutes the SPL champions were in front against the worlds most feted team but on the stroke of half time Andres Iniesta levelled the scores before Alba’s stoppage time heart-breaker.
“You know when you come here you are going to be under concerted pressure and we just needed to see it out,” Lennon admitted.
“While I’m bitterly disappointed for the players I’m immensely proud of them as well, they were brilliant.
“They stuck to what we asked them to do, they didn’t lose their composure when we were under pressure. They conceded ground when they had to but defended brilliantly.
“At times on the counter attack we looked dangerous against the best team in the world. To come here and play as well as that doesn’t surprise me about these players.
“Everyone had written us off but I know the quality and character of the team. We have it all to do in a couple of weeks and we look forward to that.
“The hurt will last a couple of days but I don’t think that I’ll need to pick them up, they were pretty brave tonight under a huge amount of pressure.”
Goalkeeper Fraser Foster pulled off two incredible saves from Fraser Forster justifying Lennon’s belief in the former Newcastle man.
“Fraser is top class, I think that he’s going to go really far in the game,” the Celtic boss added.
“More or less since he arrived he’s been fantastic in every away match. As a group of 14 I can’t speak highly enough of them, they just needed to see it through that was all.”
Well played guys. I was devasted at the end but the way we played was fantastic. In that second half we even managed some passing play that barca would have been proud of. Not just a one trick pony with long balls to Samaras.
Proud of Lenny’s young lions tonight, take a bow bhoys!!!
desperately, desperately unlucky!!
30 seconds to go and loose it but IMO every one of them were heroes this preference can and will do our confidence the world of good
magnificent background of a stadium and a magnificence Barcelona side to play against
well done our bhoys~~~~ very proud of you tonight!
THIS IS A TEAM IN THE MAKING. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.
Most certainly plenty to proud of, but also some much to be learned. We simply cannot just kick the ball up the park aimlessly, at worst we should seek to put the ball out for a throw-in and re-organise, push up a bit. Against Barcelona we must put pacey players against both full backs as they are vital to their attacks. Neither of their centre backs will hurt anyone when in possession.
We can put those lessons learned to good effect in the return game, 3 points would be a massive boost for us. Quite clearly their defence is weak especially under cross balls, corners, free-kicks, long throws so we have to take full advantage.
Well said Williebhoy, brilliant performance but as well as we played we still need to learn from the things we could do better. Signs are looking good for us – just need to work on getting up another level…..shame we never managed to nab a second…