The Catalan media were always likely to crow on Wednesday. After the disappointing defeat to Alaves at the weekend, beating Celtic 7-0 allowed the plaudits to come out.
Lionel Messi is once again, perhaps correctly, labelled the greatest footballer of all time, and his teammates praised as an excellent supporting cast.
What was perhaps a little unexpected is just how much sections of the Spanish media have laid into Celtic players. Of course, the team from Scotland were always unlikely to outclass Barcelona at the Camp Nou but Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo sound genuinely annoyed with just how bad the performance was.
The player ratings for Celtic aren’t pretty anywhere in Spain, but Mundo Deportivo’s description of individual performances is blunt to say the least.
‘Dirty’ midfielder Scott Brown is said to not understand football, and to have ‘wanted a pub fight’ instead, which Ivan Rakitic politely declined.
Stuart Armstrong is labelled ‘Lunático’ and it’s claimed that when he was on the pitch there was a sense of ‘What am I doing here?’.
For Kolo Toure, Mundo Deportivo say it’s never too late for a new experience and ‘At 35 he suffered probably the toughest match of his life.’
One Celtic player did get some praise. Of Scott Sinclair, the newspaper say ‘Best Celtic player, boldly dribbling and providing the between the lines pass.’
