Celtic have one of their biggest European nights, as they head to the Nou Camp on Tuesday night to face the might of Barcelona. The Scottish Champions are unbeaten in the Group Stage so far of this year’s competition, holding Benfica to a draw in Glasgow, before recording a long overdue away win with a 3-2 win over Spartak Moscow on Match Day Two. So they Bhoys will be buoyant despite the win over Russia being their first win in 21 away fixtures in the Champions League proper and now they have to try and ride that wave of excitement to get something out of their trip to Spain.
While we head to Barcelona v Celtic betting, the two sides have met before, six times in fact and Celtic have managed one win, two draws and three defeats. The win for Celtic came at home in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup where they held out for a 0-0 draw in the return leg to progress on aggregate. Since then, things have gone the way of the Spaniards. They have met four times in the Champions League, with three wins in Barcelona’s favour and a draw.
Naturally Celtic are going to be the heavy underdogs, most teams who visit the Nou Camp are. That is because Barcelona are on a 17 European home match unbeaten streak, having won fourteen of those matches. You can add on top of that the fact that Celtic have not won on their previous twelve trips to Spain, losing nine of their matches there. The last time they hit Spain was in last season’s Europa League when they lost 2-0 at Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona were involved in a thrilling 5-4 away win over Deportivo on Saturday, in which Lionel Messi boosted his goal tally for the season with a hat trick. Barcelona have dropped just two points in the league this season, with Messi netting 11 goals in their eight matches so far. Celtic also top their league, having amassed twenty points from nine matches, and having won their last four in a row, and with a solid start to the Champions League campaign, they’ll have to be confident on Tuesday night.
The bookies are stacking the odds against Celtic winning, with online bookmaker Bet Victor having the Scottish Champions out at 35/1, with Barcelona overwhelming 1/12 favourites. A draw is going for a price of 12/1. Online bookmaker Bet Victor offer a free £25 bet for new customers registering an account as they will match the value of your first stake on a new account with a free bet, up to the maximum value of £25.
