Scars from battering by Barca are yet to heal

Celtic goalkeeper Dorus de Vries admits the scars from his 7-0 Barcelona battering have yet to “heal up”.

The Dutchman’s first game in Europe for the Hoops was a Champions League fixture at the Nou Camp in September 2016.

A star-studded Barca side inflicted on the Scottish champions their heaviest-ever European defeat with Lionel Messi helping himself to a hat-trick, Luis Suarez a double and goals from Neymar and Andres Iniesta.

Craig Gordon took over as number one a couple of weeks later but De Vries came back into the side last month after the Scotland keeper sustained a longterm knee injury which will keep him out for up to 12 weeks.

The 37-year-old is set to make only his second appearance for Celtic in Europe on Thursday week when Russian side Zenit St Petersburg travel to Glasgow for the first leg of their Europa League clash.

Speaking at the club’s Lennoxtown training complex, where he was helping publicise a new two-year sponsorship by IT and communications group company Exsel Group of the Celtic Women’s team, De Vries recalled the painful night in Spain.

“I think that will take a couple of years to heal up, that one, because I am a winner, I want to win,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter whether it is Barcelona or Partick Thistle, you want to win. Simple.

“It was a disappointing night in terms of the result, of course. It was really hard to take on board that you conceded goals, even if you concede one it is always hard to take as a goalkeeper because you don’t want to concede any goals.”