The 125 candles on Celtic’s birthday cake were extinguished with a result that flared around Europe as they administered Barcelona’s first defeat of the season courtesy of a Victor Wanyama header and a dazzling strike on the break by the 18-year-old Tony Watt, despite a frantic late rally that saw Lionel Messi score his inevitable goal.
Yet fate had dealt Lennon a mixed hand over the course of the day. The news that Georgios Samaras had overcome the ankle injury which caused him to be replaced during the first half in Barcelona was countered by the absence of Scott Brown - understood to have succumbed to a virus - which added the Celtic captain to a casualty list that deprived the manager of Emilio Izaguirre, James Forrest and Gary Hooper and left him with three teenagers on the bench - Tony Watt, Dylan McGeouch and John Herron. The alternatives available to Tito Vilanove were immense by contrast - Gerard Pique, Cesc Fabregas, David Villa, to name but three.
In such circumstances, when Celtic’s sinews required to be stiffened and spirits to be summoned there could not have been a more inspiring backdrop than the teams encountered when they took the field to a stunning array of spectator-borne colours which spelt out a tribute to the club’s 125th anniversary, superlative even by the standard of such choreographed displays.
Lionel Messi was to display a moment of characteristically wondrous skill before half time when he accepted a prompt from Andrés Iniesta and juggled the ball from right foot to left and off the crossbar in less time than it takes you to read this description of the attempt. So swift was Messi’s reaction that it required examination of the slow motion TV replays to discern that Fraser Forster had actually got the tips of his glove to the shot.
By that time, though, the most explosive development had seen Celtic seize the initiative. Just as they had done in the first meeting of these sides they took the lead from a setpiece.
Celtic had put in their work on the training ground. Charlie Mulgrew’s delivery was pitched perfectly beyond the back post and Victor Wanyama timed his run perfectly to beat Alex Song to the punch and head sweetly past Victor Valdes.
The priority for Celtic was to preserve their lead to the distant interval, a feat that had eluded them in Catalonia, where Iniesta equalised just before the break. But Barcelona refused to yield the ball and there were two heart stopping moments. One came when Dani Alves crossed for Alexis Sánchez to cushion a header beautifully across Forster but the ball skipped off the far post and out. The other was a Jordi Alba cutback bound for Messi’s straining boot until Forster inserted a hand to divert and allow Kelvin Wilson to clear.
Barca became increasingly frantic following the break but a world class Forster stop thwarted Messi and it was the goalkeeper who got the assist, with a kick from hand, when Watt left Mascherano for dead to finish perfectly and ensure a victory which could not be diverted even by Messi’s strike in stoppage time as the skies over the east end of Glasgow boomed to the Hoops’ euphoric anthems.
Celtic (4-4-1-1): Forster; Lustig (Watt 72), Ambrose, Wilson, Matthews; Commons, Wanyama, Ledley, Mulgrew; Samaras (Kayal 79); Miku. Subs: Zaluska (g), McCourt, Herron, Fraser, McGeouch.
Booked: Miku.
Goals: Wanyama 21, Watt 83
Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes; Dani Alves, Bartra (Pique 71), Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Xavi, Song (Fabregas 71), Iniesta; Pedro, Messi, Alexis (Villa 65). Subs: Pinto, Jonathan, Montoya, Tello.
Booked: Song, Jordi Alba.
Goal: Messi 90
Referee: B Kuipers (Holland)
Celtic 2 Barcelona 1: match report - Telegraph