Barcelona vs. Celtic: Barca Still Top Champions League Contender Despite Upset

Celtic F.C. scored a huge upset win over Barcelona in Glasgow on Wednesday. The victory gives the young Bhoys a vote of confidence but doesn’t do much to take away from their Catalan Group G opponents.

The final 2-1 score in favor of Celtic isn’t indicative of what went down at Celtic Park.

Blaugrana dominated the pitch, out-shooting Celtic 25-4 with eight shots on goal to two. An epic performance by goalkeeper Fraser Forster kept Barca out of the net for most of the contest.

Alternately, Barca goalie Victor Valdez had a miserable match, letting in both of the only two shots on his goal.

Barca didn’t just dominate at the net; they controlled possession for 84-percent of play, neutralizing the Celtic attack for much of the action.

Wednesday’s loss was the first group-stage defeat for Barcelona in the past three years. Matches like this are bound to happen, though. It wasn’t a fluke, but it was the closest thing to it.

What does this mean for Barca and their Champions League aspirations?

A win would have pushed the side into the knockout round of 16, but now they’ll need to work a little harder to get there. Still, no further slip ups are anticipated as Barcelona continues to get healthy and send its best contingent onto the pitch.

Either way, both Barca and Celtic are worlds ahead of the rest of the competition in Group G. Benifica (4 points) and Spartak Moscow (3 points) are longshots to usurp Celtic let alone knock off the Camp Nou side.

It just isn’t going to happen.

Lionel Messi is one of the premier footballers in the world. With him leading the way, the Catalan Club is expected to breeze through their opening group and continue their relative domination of the Champions League tournament.

Competition is going to get a lot tougher for new manager Tito Vilanova’s side after the group stage tapers off, but Camp Nou is prepared for best the world has to offer.

They’ve got the talent, experience and depth to go as deep into the tournament as they let themselves. It’s all a matter of execution and finishing at the net.

They didn’t against Celtic and it cost them the match.