Lionel Messi scored his sixth Champions League hat-trick as rampant Barcelona inflicted on Celtic their heaviest ever European defeat.<\/p>\n
The Argentine forward cracked in an early first goal in the Group C match. Celtic\u2019s Moussa Dembele had a penalty saved before Messi poked in his second.<\/p>\n
In the second half, Neymar\u2019s free-kick sailed into the net, Andres Iniesta volleyed a fourth, Messi slid home the fifth and Suarez scored with a volley and then a side-footed finish.<\/p>\n
In their two full seasons together at the Nou Camp, Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez have scored a combined 253 goals and have assisted 120 more.<\/p>\n
Those numbers are rising quickly in the early weeks of this season \u2013 266 goals and 128 assists \u2013 and in this latest masterclass, Messi got a hat-trick of goals and Neymar a goal and four assists.<\/p>\n
They are \u2013 more often than not \u2013 unplayable. All of the weaknesses in Celtic\u2019s make-up \u2013 and there were so many \u2013 were ruthlessly exposed. Messi scored after just three minutes when Neymar slid the ball through a spooked defence. Celtic won a penalty against the run of play when Dembele was brought down by Marc-Andre ter Stegen, but the striker then had his effort saved by the Barcelona goalkeeper. After that, the floodgates opened.<\/p>\n
Messi\u2019s second came after he and Neymar combined to bamboozle the Celtic defence, Messi walking it in for number two. Barca\u2019s speed of thought and movement was delicious. Football, yes, but not as anybody in Scotland knows it.<\/p>\n
Neymar\u2019s 50th-minute free-kick made it three, Celtic goalkeeper Dorus de Vries getting a touch but not a big enough touch. De Vries should have done better.<\/p>\n
The torture just got worse. Iniesta came on at the break and he scored the fourth, thumping Neymar\u2019s cross on the volley past De Vries. Celtic\u2019s brains were spinning. Within 76 seconds the fifth had arrived, Suarez putting it into the box for Messi to slide in for his hat-trick goal. Suarez added the sixth, taking down Neymar\u2019s dinked pass on his chest before turning and rifling it home.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lionel Messi scored his sixth Champions League hat-trick as rampant Barcelona inflicted on Celtic their heaviest ever European defeat. The Argentine forward cracked in an early first goal in the Group C match. Celtic\u2019s Moussa Dembele had a penalty saved before Messi poked in his second. In the second half, Neymar\u2019s free-kick sailed into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":248126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n