The Scottish Premiership side got their Champions League group-stage campaign off to a poor start.
Celtic’s Moussa Dembele
Moussa Dembele has claimed that Celtic’s 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Barcelona was a valuable experience for Brendan Rodgers’ men, the Evening Times reports.
After enjoying the high of the 5-1 victory from the Old Firm game, the Hoops were brought back down to earth with a bang as the Catalan giants stormed to a comfortable win during the opening week of the Champions League group-stages.
Celtic’s Nir Bitton with Moussa Dembele
But despite the emphatic defeat, the 20-year-old believes that the Scottish Premiership side should look to take as much knowledge from the game as possible in an attempt to become a better team.
“As a young player to go to the Nou Camp to play against the best team in the world is something great,” he said, as reported by the Evening Times.
Dembele misses a penalty
“In a game like that, even though the result was not what we wanted, it was valuable to see what it takes to be a top, top player and that’s what I learned from the Barcelona.”
Arguably, the main lesson that Dembele will have learnt is how ruthless sides such as Barca actually are. Luis Enrique’s men took a 1-0 lead, but the former Fulham man had the perfect chance to level the clash as the Bhoys were awarded a penalty.
Celtic’s Dorus de Vries was beaten seven times during the game
However, the Frenchman missed the spot-kick and the La Liga outfit had soon doubled their advantage, before subsequently adding another five goals to complete the rout.
But while the scoreline may have been considerably greater than Rodgers would have been anticipating, he will surely reflect on the experience positively if it inspires his team to make the kind of impression during the rest of the group-stages that sees them remain in Europe beyond this stage.
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