Barcelona excited by visit to Celtic
The Catalan giants have played five times at Celtic Park but it’s the last three European encounters that have captured the imagination of the Nou Camp faithful.
Following Alan Thompsons decisive strike in a Uefa Cup tie in 2004 Barca have been the only side to have emerged victorious from the east end on Champions League duty.
A 3-1 victory in 2004 was marked by the return of Henrik Larsson to the ground where he made his name while a 3-2 thriller in 2008 will be long remembered for the memorable goals by Jan Venegoor of Hesselink and Barrry Robson.
Looking forward to another visit to Glasgow the Barca website stated: “This Wednesday at 20.45, Barça will return to Celtic Park, a 60,000-capacity stadium that always boasts a phenomenal atmosphere. It will be FC Barcelona’s fifth visit to Celtic FC’s stadium.
“The first was on December 2 of 1964 in the second round of the UEFA Cup (0-0). 40 years later, in March of 2004, the Catalans return to Glasgow to play in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Cup. A solitary goal from Thomspon sent Barça packing and sealed qualification for Celtic (1-0).
“The last two times Barça played away to Celtic ended in two victories for the Blaugrana. In the 2004/05 season, in the Champions League group stage, Rijkaard’s Barça defeated Celtic thanks to goals from Deco, Giuly and Larsson (1-3). Finally, in the 2007/08 season, in the away leg of the Champions League knock-out stage, Barça narrowly edged Celtic by 2-3. Messi scored two and Henry scored one.”
The Barca website seems to have overlooked a friendly between the two clubs in 1996 when under manager Bobby Robson the visitors won with a goal from Oscar.
Celtic: Kerr, Boyd, McKinlay, McNamara, Stubbs, Grant, Di Canio (Hay 46), Donnelly (Wieghorst 70), O’Neil, Thom(Amaral 52), Cadete (McLaughlin 72)
Barcelona: Busquests, Ferrer, Fernandez, De La Pena, Blanc (Couto 46), Oscar (Pizzi 62), Prosinecki, Amor, Nadal, Garcia (Lopez 86), Celades (Cuellar 83).
Non Used Subs: Arnau, Perez.
Scorer: Oscar (19)
CLICK HERE for Watt hopefully that’s my bad performance out the way
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