In one of many encounters over the decades, Celtic faced an almighty uphill struggle to qualify from the Champions League. The Hoops required a win at the Nou Camp to progress into the last sixteen, and they grabbed an outstanding draw against the Catalan giants.
The Barcelona line up consisted of superstars like Ronaldinho, Xavi, Marques, Deco, Giuly and Samuel Eto’o. Lionel Messi was on the bench alongside Van Bronkhorst and Fernando.
The Celtic side, managed by Martin O’Neill, facing the mammoth task of grabbing three vital Champions League points was:
GK: Magnus Hedman
Balde Valgaraen Varga
Agathe McNamara (c)
Thompson Lennon Petrov
Hartson Sutton
The home side dominated the match but it took until the 25th minute for Samuel Eto’o to open the scoring after a simple 1-2 with Deco, the striker poked the ball into Hedman’s bottom left hand corner.
Celtic withstood massive amounts of pressure against a team that had just three days prior to this match, taught the Galactico’s of Real Madrid, which included Zidane, Beckham and Ronaldo a footballing lesson defeating them 3-0 in La Liga.
Celtic equalised from a free kick on the right hand side of the pitch. Petrov swung in the dead ball, Stan Varga glanced a header into the box and John Hartson popped up and stabbed the ball home with his toe.
Barcelona had various efforts at the Celtic goal from Xavi, Iniesta and Ronaldinho but the Parkhead side’s dogged defensive display frustrated the Spanish side and the Hoops held on for a famous point.