Champions league: Barcelona vs. Celtic Glasgow

This shouldn’t be too big a problem for Barcelona to qualify for the last eight of the present edition of the Champions League. They beat Celtic Glasgow by three goals to two in the first leg at Celtic Park, so the Scottish club has to travel to the Nou Camp and score at least two goals while keeping Ronaldinho, Messi, Henry and Eto’o at bay. No easy task then, for the men from Glasgow.

However, the Scotts will find a bit of hope after having watched Barcelona’s first league defeat in eight games against Atlético Madrid at the weekend. Madrid’s second team went against all the predictions and won it by four goals to two. This was after coming back from behind after Barca’s Brazilian star Ronaldinho put the Catalan club in front with a marvelous scissor-shot. (Look for it on the net as it is well worth it). Normally Atlético would have folded, especially as their form has been well off of late. However, they didn’t fold at all turned the game completely around as Forlan, Maxi Rodriguez and Agüero (twice) all got on the score sheet. Barcelona were able to pull one back through Eto’o but it was too little too late. Barcelona will be kicking themselves for allowing Atlético so much space and time on the ball which is something they mustn’t let Celtic have. They were just two points from leaders and arch rivals Real Madrid before this game, but must now face an uphill task as they are now five points adrift after Real’s win against Recreativo.

For Celtic Glasgow the weekend was quite different. They beat Hibernian by two goals to two away from home and maintain a four point gap between the leaders Rangers. The good news is that Scot Brown will be eligible to play after serving a one match suspension in the first leg.

The last two occasions when Celtic played at the Nou Camp stadium the games ended in draws, and I can see this happening for a third time. Barcelona’s Leo Messi is set to start the game on the bench, first because coach Frank Rijkaard wants to rest him, but also because the Argentinean is one yellow card away from a one match ban.

I’m going for the draw here. Barcelona will want to put this game to bed as soon as possible, but Celtic will come for a fight and make life very difficult for the Spaniards.

Prediction: Draw (1-1)