Barcelona can be a vision on the pitch but they possess an icy stare

Chief football writer

Thursday 25 October 2012

BARCELONA could not be more calculating and merciless about winning matches if they crept up behind opponents and put them to sleep with chloroform.

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Michael Grant

One of the great, unheralded qualities of this special squad of footballers is the fact they are loved even by their victims.

Celtic can be counted among Barcelona's countless admirers yet at the same time the side of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and the rest have been privately cold and unsentimental about taking care of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League champions. Deep in the bowels of Camp Nou the other night, Alex Song said something straightforward yet chilling. "We are very happy with this win because our aim was to get six points from the two Celtic matches and secure qualification," said the Barcelona midfielder. "Now we have achieved the first part and we can go to Glasgow to finish things off, hopefully."

So there it is for Celtic, then: Barcelona identified the double-header – the return fixture is at Parkhead on November 7 – as a couple of matches which they would prioritise in the group campaign, in order to secure their qualification for the last 16 with the luxury of a couple of games to spare. That could result in them pursuing victory more aggressively against Celtic than they will need to in their subsequent matches at home to Benfica and away to Spartak Moscow, which would not help Celtic's own prospects of qualifying as Group G's runners-up.There is something impressively mechanical in the mentality of these gorgeously-talented Barcelona players, and it is significant because they have the abilityto impose their will on results at home or away. Celtic pushed them to the very limit on Tuesday night but there must be a realisation from Neil Lennon and his players that the pattern of play will not be very different when the teams meet again in Glasgow.Barcelona will dominate possession again, create more chances again, perhaps score one or two again. All that may change is what nearly 60,000 of their own supporters will inspire Celtic to achieve. "We don't need to change our style, even if we are losing a match," said Song. "We have the confidence to keep doing the right things and feel that we can score. "In the Celtic game we showed something that is important for any team: we showed we had character. Everyone talks about Barcelona's skill but this was where we showed heart. We believed we would score in the first half and we did right on half-time, then we felt the winner would come even if it was right at the end."I think Celtic did very well. They scored the first goal out of nothing and then tried very hard to defend. We knew that was going to be the case if they managed to get ahead. But when you have a collection of players like we now have at Barcelona there is always the feeling that we can score at any time no matter the opposition."It's hard to say what happens to Celtic from here, the result was very hard for them to take. But I cannot predict what happens in this group. We are ahead and that makes me happy but the fight for second place will be tight. It wasn't easy for us, Celtic fought very hard and made us try everything we knew to get the goal. But the strength of this Barcelona team is that we are never beaten."Song is troubled by the fact his Spanish is not good enough to allow him to communicate with his team-mates in anything other than English, although it has hardly showed in his contribution to the side. Barcelona have won all five games in which he has started as either a central defender or holding midfielder since joining from Arsenal this summer.The Cameroon internationalist played for Arsenal against Celtic in the 2009 Champions League qualifying rounds. "We won both legs even if it was much harder for us in Glasgow," he said. "Arsenal played a good passing game in Glasgow and we won. Barcelona takes it to a new height."We are Barcelona. I repeat, there is nothing that worries us on the park when you have the players we have on our side."They are rightly lauded as artists, yet Barcelona also go about their business with the iciness of lab technicians.

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Barcelona can be a vision on the pitch but they possess an icy stare

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