THE problem with playing a game the whole of Europe wants to see is that referees watch it like a hawk, too.

Drawing with Barcelona was beginning to feel like the sort of comedown Celtic might just be prepared to live with 11 months after the adrenaline rush of beating them, but the sequel took a sour turn which sunk them. After 59 goalless minutes their captain, Scott Brown, brought down the will-o'-the-wisp winger Neymar and then gave him a sly kick as he passed. Brown might have thought it would go unnoticed, but not at this level. Stephane Lannoy, the French referee, saw it, showed Brown a straight red card and condemned Celtic to the inevitable. They had been stretched all night but were coping. To do so a man down was asking too much.

Barcelona won without Lionel Messi and thanks to his replacement. Cesc Fabregas finally pierced Celtic just 14 minutes from time with a header past Fraser Forster. Until then the Celtic goalkeeper had not been worked nearly as hard as might have been feared, but three late saves, all somewhere between excellent and breathtaking, changed all that. Neymar, twice, and Alexis Sanchez were all denied when it looked as though they would twist the knife.

Brown's red card may have been harsh and Neymar's every touch was jeered by Celtic supporters who were convinced he had play-acted. The Celtic captain was asking for trouble by lashing out, though, and not all fans were inclined to be sympathetic. Celtic have competed admirably in both games so far but Group H is accelerating away from them. Against elite opposition they have lost twice without scoring a goal. For all the fantastic bedlam Parkhead created once again, there is a danger of Celtic going down quietly.

This was Barcelona winning with quiet superiority. Not blossoming, not on full beam, but doing enough to draw the sting out of a raucous atmosphere and imposing their game. No visiting team had won a group game at Parkhead other than Barcelona in 2004, and now they have done it twice. No-one else cares about possession statistics but with the Catalan side it is mandatory to confirm exactly how much they dominated control of the ball. For the record, they had 72%, 11% fewer than when they lost a year ago. That they would hog the ball as usual was never in any doubt, certainly not after they kicked off and threaded it around the pitch for one minute, 40 seconds before a Celtic man got the briefest interception. The Celtic fans had started by booing every pass. Wisely they soon gave up on that.

Yet for all their wizardry, Barcelona can often look like a team better at keeping the ball than working out how to plant it in the opposition's net, certainly when they do not have Messi to punctuate their brilliance with goals. They made only a handful of unremarkable chances.

Celtic started with the same team as kicked-off in Milan, but not deployed the same way. Georgios Samaras was on his own up front with Anthony Stokes playing the first half as one of the five midfielders in a line behind him. Lennon wanted Samaras's power, presence and running. It took both Dani Alves and Marc Bartra to contain him, and sometimes others too, and they swooped down on him collectively any time he looked likely to threaten. Samaras raced on to a cute early through-ball from Stokes and goalkeeper Victor Valdes raced out to block him. Otherwise neither Stokes nor Kris Commons, very quiet for once, had any influence on the night. Stokes was pushed up in the second half but never got a sniff of a chance.

When Celtic got set-pieces they flooded Barcelona's penalty area with their big men. Virgil van Dijk, Efe Ambrose, Mikael Lustig, Samaras and Stokes all piled in to the box but Charlie Mulgrew's deliveries did not have the alchemy which yielded goals for Samaras and Victor Wanyama against Barcelona last season.

Van Dijk had been outstanding, Celtic's man-of-the-match until Forster flourished at the end. At last Celtic suddenly made a couple of chances. James Forrest's superb control allowed him to fire a shot which forced Valdes into a terrific save. Moments later Mulgrew really should have scored but sent a header wide. It was the one brief period in the game when Celtic threatened, and with 10 men.

Barcelona had been all about endless passages of lovely and blunt passing. They can kill a team by stealth, too, though. Celtic had been coping for 17 minutes a man down when Barcelona finally opened them up. Substitute Alexis got into space behind Emilio Izaguirre and placed a delicious cross for Fabregas to plant a cushioned header back across Forster into the net.

Forster's late saves were incredible. By then Celtic looked resigned to defeat. When Iniesta was taken off near the end there was applause all around the ground. Whatever Parkhead thought of Neymar, it could not corrode their profound respect for the only club that has ever been good enough to come here and win in a group game.