Barcelona 7 Celtic 0: Messi, Neymar, Iniesta and Suarez help dish out Hoops’ worst ever Euro result

MORE than a clubbing..

This was a complete annihilation.

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Celtic were virtually knocked senseless in a night which will go down in their history books for all the wrong reasons.

Barca were at their brilliant best.

But unfortunately for Brendan Rodgers and his side this crushing Champions League defeat is now their worst Euro result ever.

A stunning Leo Messi hat-trick, two goals from Luis Suarez and one each for Neymar and Andres Iniesta saw Celts completely ripped apart.

Moussa Dembele missed a penalty at 1-0 but he can sleep easy. Had he scored it wouldn’t have made the blindest bit of difference.

Rodgers said all the right things in the build-up.

He made it clear Celtic weren’t in this spectacular city as tourists. That it was a business trip, not a holiday.

But at the same time he also pointed out that Barca have arguably the best football frontline there’s been. Ever.

So there was no doubting the size of this task long before the first ball as kicked.

And yet still, from the moment this game got going Barcelona’s skill and quality was genuinely breathtaking.

Rodgers no doubt urged his men to keep things as tight as possible early on.

They lasted less than three minutes.

Could it have been avoided?

In the cold light of day you could point the finger of blame at Patrick Roberts for switching off when Barca got their very first corner.

The winger had pushed high up the pitch in a clear tactical ploy to give the home team’s defence something to think about.

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But when Jordi Alba burst forward he was too slow to react and go with him.

Neymar played the corner to the attacking full-back, got the ball back and then slid a pass inside for Messi.

Hoops keeper Dorus de Vries hasn’t even touched the ball yet but suddenly he had the world’s best player coming at him.

Before he could even think about closing down the angle, Messi unleashed a shot which flew past him like a rocket.

It was such a devastating start to the game for Celtic.

With their tails up Barca turned on the style with Messi and Neymar a real joy to watch.

You had to feel for 19 year old Kieran Tierney who got such a runaround he must have ended the night with twisted blood.

And yet despite their possession and keep-ball football Celtic really should have made it 1-1 against all the odds.

Incredibly with 23 minutes on the clock they got a penalty after Dembele was brought down inside the box from keeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.

Scott Sinclair had threaded a ball through brilliantly after a bursting run forward with the referee rightly pointing to the spot as the striker was upended.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but should Dembele have taken it when he’d just been clattered?

History will say he should have thrown the ball to someone else.

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The Hoops support high in the stadium all prayed he’d score but Dembele stunted his run up to the ball and had his weak shot saved.

No-one will ever know the significance of the miss.

Chances are it would have turned out to be a consolation goal for Celtic such was Barca’s dominance.

But then again maybe it would have given Rodgers’ side a new lease of life to level the game and make it 1-1.

Even after the penalty was saved Scott Brown had a volley which deflected agonisingly wide.

It wasn’t long before Barca made it 2-0. In fact, it was just four minutes later that the home side scored their second.

This time Messi virtually walked the ball into the net after playing one-twos with Neymar like kids in the playground.

And that was that.

It wasn’t like Celtic gave up, in fact Scott Brown reacted furiously when he was tripped by Ivan Rakitic five minutes before the break to show his fighting attitude.

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But the fact of the matter was that there was no way back.

Not against a side as good as this one.

Barca made it 3-0 four minutes into the second half as the game turned into a damage limitation exercise for Celtic.

This time keeper Dorus de Vries looked none-too-clever as despite getting a hand to the ball, a Neymar free-kick beat him.

With so long left to play Celtic were suddenly in danger of a mauling.

Barca had thrown on the legendary Andres Iniesta for the start of the second half – taking off Rakitic – in what must have been a daunting sight for the Celtic midfield who already looked knackered.

And it was the brilliant little Spain superstar who volleyed in goal number four in 59 minutes.

Neymar again was the provider with a run down the left and pulled-back cross for Iniesta to run onto.

With technique to die for he smashed his first-time shot high into the Celtic net.

The Celtic fans would have been forgiven for disappearing there and then and heading off into the warm Barcelona night to drown their sorrow but they did all they could to back their team at a time when they needed all the help they could get.

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But if anyone did leave they’d have missed another sensational goal as Barca made it five.

Luis Suarez was the architect this time as he burst into the box and cut the ball back for Messi to tap in.

It went down as his 40th career hat-trick for club and country in a mind-boggling statistic.

But even then it wasn’t over.

In 75 minutes Suarez added to the rout with a stunning chest-control and volley which came close to bursting the net as goal six flew past de Vries.

Messi struck the post three minutes before the end with the Hoops No1 making a rare save.

But 60 seconds later Suarez poked home his second of the night as the Celtic defence were virtually pleased for the game to come to an end.