DAVID Moyes reckons Celtic's only hope of beating Barcelona in the Camp Nou tomorrow night is to abandon any thoughts of taking them on at their own game.
The Sunderland manager and former Parkhead player, who rebuffed the chance to take over Celtic this summer, has a memorable 1-0 victory against the Catalan giants on his CV from his time at Real Sociedad.
The January 2015 encounter in the Anoeta saw Sociedad take the lead through a second-minute Jordi Alba own goal then defend resolutely for the remainder of the match, gaining a clean sheet despite Lionel Messi and Neymar joining Luis Suarez on field for the last half hour.
Read more: Celtic captain Scott Brown declared fit for Barcelona Champions League clash
This season's Barcelona model again showed signs of frailty when losing at home to lowly Alaves in La Liga on Saturday night.
But Moyes reckons his former club may have to sacrifice the attacking instincts which have served them so well this season if they are to get a positive result.
"It was a brilliant night," recalled Moyes. "We scored a goal in the first minute from an own goal and we defended for our life. We just kept defending and kept defending - all defending.
"You never want to set out that way but you will be kidding yourself if you think you can go and play Barcelona, you just can't," he added.
"They have too much of the ball. With their style, you will get one or two opportunities, because they play open.
"But you are playing against something which is completely different, it is not normal.
Brendan Rodgers might have a different plan, he will have his own ideas, but we found that it was very hard to get enough of the ball off them.
"We were delighted when Messi and Neymar didn't start, although all three - Messi, Suarez and Neymar - were on with half an hour to go," Moyes added.
"But I have to say it will be great for Celtic's players to get up close and see what it is like. We went there to the Nou Camp with Sociedad and were a bit unlucky to lose 2-0 in a league game, so from that point of view I have been there and it is not impossible. But you just have to somehow stay in the game as long as you can."
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel