Barcelona beats Celtic 2-0 with Messi scoring twice

Lionel Messi steered Barcelona to a 13th straight appearance in the Champions League knockout stage, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win at Celtic as the Spanish team secured top spot in Group C on Wednesday.

The Brazilian was first to burst into the Celtic box and teed up Messi with a backheel and the Argentine’s deflected shot had Craig Gordon scrambling across his line before it was cleared.

“We’d have had a big chance”, he said, when asked if Celtic could win if they had the Argentinean.

“He shows the difference he makes”.

“But, yes, he’s phenomenal player, an incredible player and he’s always hungry to score”.

“The first goal’s just exceptional – it’s a great ball, it’s great movement and it’s a great finish”.

Celtic captain Scott Brown insists the team will be back in the Champions League next year after they exited Europe with a game to play. “However, they went up to the other end and scored a second”.

He said at his post-match media conference: “I didn’t think it was a penalty”.

“I think I will stay here 100 per cent”.

“The momentum was with us at that point”. We were good at the break and improved as the game went on.

That disappointing result will likely give them all the motivation they need to perform to their best against Celtic, and if they do it could be another walloping.

“It’s something that we actually worked on during the week – the speed against goal”.

Rodgers said striker Leigh Griffiths is making progress from the hamstring problem that kept him out of the 1-0 victory at Rugby Park.

“Even at 2-0, we still kept fighting and working, but, of course, it becomes that little bit more hard”.

Messi has now scored 92 Champions League goals, just three behind Real Madrid talisman Ronaldo, who has 95 UCL strikes to his name.

He told uefa.com: “We came with the objective of guaranteeing qualification and topping the group and we’ve achieved that”.

“If you look at the first game compared to now, we weren’t fearful”.