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Celtic meet Barcelona, Manchester City and Monchengladbach in Champions League

By Andrew Dickson

Friday 26 August 2016 10:01, UK

Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Nir Bitton and Efe Ambrose of Celtic during the International Champions Cup series match in Dublin
Image: Celtic and Barcelona met in pre-season in Dublin, with the Spanish side winning 3-1

Celtic have been given one of the toughest draws possible after they were grouped with Barcelona, Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League.

The Scottish title holders were in pot four in Monaco and that saw them put into a section few will expect them to progress from.

Although they are facing Monchengladbach and Pep Guardiola's City competitively for the first time, Celtic have played Barcelona several times in recent years.

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Kieran Tierney is looking forward to Celtic's Champions League group stage match with Barcelona

Indeed, having been paired in the UEFA Cup in 2003/04 - Celtic advancing with a 1-0 aggregate win - this is the fifth time in 12 years the clubs have been in the same Champions League group.

Celtic memorably defeated Barcelona 2-1 at Parkhead in November 2012, with striker Tony Watt scoring the winner just seven minutes from the end.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers at full-time
Image: Brendan Rodgers is back in the Champions League with Celtic after leading Liverpool in the competition previously

The Glasgow side are back in the group phase of the competition for the first time in three years after being knocked out by Maribor and Malmo in the last two seasons.

Scotland's reduced coefficient means they started this term's competition in the second qualifying round, where they suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat to Gibraltar's Lincoln Red Imps in the first leg.

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Celtic famously defeated Barcelona in November 2012, with Tony Watt scoring the winner seven minutes from the end
Image: Celtic famously defeated Barcelona in November 2012, with Tony Watt scoring the winner seven minutes from the end

Rodgers' side recovered to win the second leg 3-0 before enjoying aggregate wins over Kazakh side FC Astana and Israel's Hapoel Be'er Sheva.

Celtic will be looking to reach the knockout phase of the tournament for the fourth time, having got to the last 16 twice under Gordon Strachan and once when Neil Lennon was in charge.

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A full round-up of Thursday's Champions League group stage draw

They will also hope to do better than they did the last time they were in the group phase as they won just once and lost five matches in their 2013/14 section with Barca, AC Milan and Ajax.

Celtic's participation has earned each of their Scottish Premiership rivals more than £100,000 as part of a UEFA solidarity payment for the rescheduling of domestic matches.

James Forrest set up Leigh Griffiths for his first goal in Celtic's 5-2 win over Hapoel Beer-Sheva
Image: Celtic defeated Hapoel Be'er Sheva over two legs after previously seeing off Lincoln Red Imps and FC Astana

Full draw

Group A: Paris-Saint Germain, Arsenal, FC Basel, Ludogorets

Group B: Benfica, Napoli, Dynamo Kiev, Besiktas

Group C: Barcelona, Manchester City, Borussia Monchengladbach, Celtic

Group D: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, PSV Eindhoven, FC Rostov

Group E: CSKA Moscow, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham, Monaco

Group F: Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon, Legia Warsaw

Group G: Leicester, Porto, Club Brugge, FC Copenhagen

Group H: Juventus, Sevilla, Lyon, Dynamo Zagreb

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