Barcelona remains the favourite to win the Champions League for the sixth time after topping Group C thanks to a comfortable victory at Celtic Park. Man City go through as runners-up after a draw in Germany.

Barcelona escaped from a potential banana skin of a tie in Celtic Park to qualify on top of Group C thanks to a brace from Lionel Messi. The Barcelona captain – looking more like Grizzly Adams that the world’s top footballer – scored either side of half-time to silence the enthusiastic support.

Celtic needed a win to retain a slim possibility of sneaking into the Europa League ahead of Borussia Monchengladbach. Man City fans were also tuning into the action on their transistor radios as a Celtic win would have kept City’s hopes alive of topping the group.

Neither of those eventualities came to fruition. Not many people in football thought they would. Messi’s first goal, in the 24th minute, was sublime. Neymar controlled the ball on the edge of the box. Messi darted into the six-yard box in the midst of six Celtic players and Neymar found him with an inch-perfect lob and the Argentinean half-volleyed the ball into the back of the net.