UCL 2016: Messi brace sinks Celtic 2-0, Manchester City seal berth in last 16

Barcelona
Lionel Messi made a perfect return for Barcelona as he scored twice against Celtic on Wednesday in Champions League. Image Source:twitter

Internet Desk: Lionel Messi once again proved his class as he helped Barcelona reach the last 16 of the Champions League with a comfortable 2-0 win at Celtic on Wednesday. The Argentine superstar scored twice on his return to the Barcelona line up.

Messi, who missed Saturday’s goalless draw with Malaga in La Liga due to illness, gave Barca the lead in the 24th minute after scoring from a lofted pass from Neymar. The Argentine was again on the score sheet in the 56th minute as he converted a spot kick won by Luis Suarez to see his side top Group C with 12 points from five games.

The last two the two sides met at Camp Nou, the Scottish side were handed a 7-0 mauling with Messi scoring a hat-trick.

Joining Barcelona in the pre-quarters was Manchester City who drew with Borussia Monchengladbach in the group’s other match.

“It was quite a hard game and we expected Celtic to come out and make it difficult,” said Barcelona manager Luis Enrique.

“We were good at the back and we got better as the game went on. It was a very difficult group and it’s great to finish first with a game to spare.”

It was the home side that pressed high up the pitch early on as they didn’t allow the visitors take control of the match.

But the Spanish champions slowly crawled back into the match as Jordi Alba and Neymar wrecked havoc with their runs.

The Brazilian who learned earlier in the day that Spanish prosecutors were seeking a two-year jail sentence and 10-million-euro fine for his part in his allegedly fraudulent transfer to Barca, was given space to play a wonderful lofted pass to Messi, who made no mistake to shot it home with a sublime shot on the half-volley.

The hosts came close to equalizing in the next minute after Moussa Dembele’s thunderous strike was thwarted by Marc Andre ter Stegen.

Luis Suarez almost gave Barcelona a two goal lead just at the stroke of half time as his header was somehow stopped with his body by Celtic custodian Gordon.

The hosts will curse themselves as they saw the best opportunity of the night go wasted as Dembele failed to get past ter Stegen of a perfect cross from James Forrest who came in as a replacement for Scott Sinclair.

The miss proved costly as Barcelona doubled their advantage moments later. Suarez got on the wrong side of Emilio Izaguirre and the Celtic defender hauled him to the ground to earn a penalty that Messi sent straight down the middle to score his 502nd goal for the Catalan giants.

Neymar will miss the final group game as he picked a yellow card for pushing Lustig to the turf after the players clashed, with the Brazilian international subbed moments later.

Here are the results of Wednesday night’s Champions League fixtures:

UCL-results