Barcelona v Celtic: Bhoys in danger of a Nou Camp calamity

Celtic upset the applecart by scoring three goals in Moscow in their last Champions League outing – they’d only managed double that amount in four previous group-stage campaigns. This 3-2 win at the Luhzniki came as a surprise to many, yet their chances of replicating that feat in the Nou Camp are non-existent.

A price as stringent as 1/12 says it’s more likely to be a case of ‘how many will Barca win by?’, whereas Celtic’s 20/1 means they’re less likely to win here than Andy Murray is to win the next two Wimbledon Championships – 16/1 – in the bookies’ eyes.

With a Barca battering almost assured, a price of 4/6 saying there’ll be over 3.5 goals scored in this one is well worth lumping on, while the 13/8 on offer for the goal line to finish up on the north side of 4.5 is worth a dabble.

Six of Barca’s 10 games this season have yielded the latter result, while the crowds present for seven of their games have witnessed more than 3.5 goals.

Lionel Messi turns up for this one in imperious form having helped himself to five goals in the host’s last two games, as well as getting three more whilst on international duty. He bagged two when Barca beat Celtic 3-2 in Glasgow, before going off injured a third of the way through the return leg.

In 26 appearances in this competition, the Argentine maestro has bagged an incredible 28 goals (Celtic have managed 21 between them over the same number of games) and Ladbrokes are offering a price as short as 3/1 for him to take the match ball home from this one, where he’s at just 66/1 to break the Champions League record, which he set, and run in six goals or more.

All the odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date