Catalans show rare weakness

Celtic face a daunting task in Spain, but this surprise defeat will give Brendan Rodgers some hope, finds Neil Cameron Barcelona Alaves

ALAVES showed the way for Brendan Rodgers by producing a performance at the Nou Camp which if replicated by Celtic on Tuesday night would give them their best chance of taking anything from their opening game in the Champions League.

Barcelona were well off their best against opponents who are hardly heavyweights of Spanish football, and it is rare for this collection of world superstars to go two matches in a row without putting in a performance.

However, the way Alaves went about things would have given Rodgers something to think about at the end of what was an already a pretty satisfying day.

Let’s begin with some encouraging positives. Alaves were set up primarily to frustrate Barcelona, which they did to great effect, they played on the counter-attack with success, the back four became a six whenever they were being attacked, then an eight and nine.

Barcelona remain a wonderful side but a strange aspect of their philosophy is that when their players are pushed towards either touchline, and Alaves were clearly told to do this at every opportunity, it’s almost as if putting a cross into the box would be a gross insult to the Catalonia.

This is hardly revelatory, it’s how they have been for over a decade and this style has served them well, but if Celtic can stop them playing passes through the middle – easier said than done – force them wide and harass the midfield whenever they are on the ball then you just never know.

But – and there just had to be a big old but – the scale of the task awaiting even a buoyant Celtic with a carefully thought out game-plan was rather driven home, if such a reminder was required at all, by those players who did not start last night.

Andres Iniesta, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Lionel Messi were on the bench. Gerard Pique did not even make the squad.

Luis Enrique, the Barcelona manager, would have described his team selection as sensible given that some of those mentioned above have been struggling with knocks and many had travelled on international duty. Most would call it showing off – although this time it did not pay off. Celtic scout John McGlynn, who was at the game, will be able to reassure his boss that it’s not mission impossible if his players are prepared to get everyone behind the ball, chase as they never have before and believe in themselves.

A blow for Barcelona, and remember this squad can handle more knocks than most, is that first-choice goalkeeper Marc -Andre ter Stegen has pulled a hamstring and will miss Tuesday. His replacement will be a familiar face to Celtic supporters as Jasper Cillissen, recently signed from Ajax and who made his debut here, has faced the Scottish champions a few times in recent seasons. And the stadium was stunned into silence when the new goalkeeper was beaten on 38 minutes.

Kiko’s quick feet won him enough space on the right wing which enabled him to aim a low cross into the box, the alert Deyverson got in front of Javier Mascherano to net.

Barcelona were level a minute after half-time. It was an untypical goal in that it came from a corner which Neymar floated into the box, and Jeremy Mathieu leapt to aim a header into the bottom corner.

Then two minutes after the goal, and from another Neymar corner, Mathieu managed to miss a sitter from five yards, dragging a shot wide with the entire goal to aim at.

Messi was eventually put on just before the hour, which went down well with the locals, and was soon followed by Iniesta, but on 64 minutes Alaves were back in front helped by some truly awful defending which allowed Ibai Gomez to take the ball into the box before placing his finish past Cillessen.

On came Suarez and up went the tempo of Barcelona’s play, and yet Alaves continued to force them to play passes backwards or sideways by sheer will.

Barcelona could put four or five past Rodgers’s side simply because they can do that to anyone. But this match showed graft can ever so often nullify genius.

We made it tougher for ourselves than expected. There is hurt in the dressing room. We are sitting in there speaking about what we need to do better Scott Brown does his talking on the field. He leads the team and is a very respectful guy. He bossed the game Celtic have the bragging rights and they deserved to win. But there’s no major gulf between the clubs. We just have to work harder I spoke about Jock Stein in my team talk. Also my father is five years dead so it was ironic we scored five goals