BARCELONA
Barcelona's lethal MSN – Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and
Neymar – dissected Celtic 7-0 while a deluge washed out Pep Guardiola's eagerly
awaited first Champions League game in charge of Manchester City on Tuesday.
There was no rain but there was a flood of goals at the Camp
Nou, where a sparkling Messi hat-trick with four assists and a goal from
Neymar, Andres Iniesta and a Suarez brace humiliated Celtic.
"There can be no embarrassment because they do that to
better teams than ourselves," said Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers.
"They are special players. It is a front three that can
occupy as many players as you want."
Suarez, reunited with Messi and Neymar for the first time
this season, told TV3: "It has been many games since we have been able to
enjoy being on the pitch together and today we did."
Celtic will have to shrug off this worst ever European defeat
as their next Group C outing is at home to City.
After the weekend derby defeat of Manchester United, City had
Borussia Moenchengladbach firmly in their sights but the fixture was called off
just 20 minutes before kick-off with the Etihad Stadium hit by heavy rain.
The match will now be played on Wednesday at 18:45 GMT.
The first goal of the 2016/2017 Champions League group stages
came after a mere 42 seconds from the head of Paris Saint Germain striker
Edinson Cavani at the Parc des Princes against Arsenal.
The strike was PSG's quickest in the Champions League, but
the French champions, and Cavani in particular, were guilty of failing to
convert a succession of golden opportunities.
The worst possible start for Arsenal hinted at a potential
lopsided affair but the Gunners got out of jail with Alexis Sanchez's leveller
inside the final quarter of an hour.
DIDN’T PANIC
Both sides ended a man down after Olivier Giroud and Marco
Verratti were sent off at the death.
"We have experience in the Champions League, we were
resilient, and we got a good point," said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
"When you start so badly against a team of that quality,
if you have no experience, if you are too young, you can be caught.
"But we didn't panic, overall we were resilient enough
and resilience is linked with experience."
PSG coach Unai Emery added: "I am not happy with the
result but I am happy with how we played.
This is the way we need to play in
future."
Wenger had words of praise for Colombian goalkeeper David
Ospina, chosen over Petr Cech.
"Ospina was very good and he will have shown tonight for
those who doubted him that he is a good goalkeeper," said the Frenchman.
Arsenal's night got better with news that Group A's other
game between Basle and Ludogorets also ended 1-1.
Guardiola's old side Bayern Munich, under new boss Carlo
Ancelotti, ran riot over Russian side Rostov 5-0.
Joshua Kimmich grabbed a second-half double, with Robert
Lewandowski scoring from the penalty spot, birthday boy Thomas Mueller and
Spanish defender Juan Bernat giving Bayern early custody of Group D.
But only on goal difference as Atletico Madrid won 1-0 at PSV
Eindhoven, Saul Niguez doing the damage with a sizzling scissor-style volley
just before the break.
Ancelotti described his debut in Europe with the Bavarian
giants as "a great game".
"Can we win the Champions League? For sure our team will
be competitive this season and for the moment everything is good, but the first
objective is to win the group, and then we will see the draw."
Napoli meanwhile may have lost their prolific goal-scoring
machine Gonzalo Higuain after the Argentine jumped ship to Serie A rivals
Juventus, but his replacement, Arkadiusz Milik, earned them a 2-1 win at Dynamo
Kiev.
Denys Garmash put Kiev in front but Milik's pair of
opportunistic headers earned Napoli a key away success against a side that
ended with 10-men.
Napoli sit top of Group B after Benfica were undone by one of
their own players.
Franco Cervi sent the Portuguese side into an early lead
against Besiktas but the Turkish visitors got an injury time equaliser courtesy
of Talisca, loaned to Besiktas by Benfica last month.
Barca meanwhile could face fresh sanctions from Uefa after
thousands of separatist Catalan flags were again flown at the Camp Nou.
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