Virtually nothing from Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Celtic this summer in the International Champions Cup is relevant ahead of the teams’ Champions League meeting on Tuesday night.
It was Barcelona’s first pre-season game and the second half dissolved entirely into endless substitutions.
The last time Barcelona played Celtic in a competitive game was December 11, 2013.
Neymar scored a hat-trick, with Gerard Pique, Pedro and Cristian Tello grabbing the other goals as they waltzed to a 6-1 victory. Giorgios Samaras struck an 89th-minute consolation that offered no real consolation to the battered Scots.
It was the club’s worst defeat in European competition, the first time in 50 years they had let in six goals. And the bad news for Celtic is that game is also irrelevant.
The Barcelona team they face on Tuesday night at the Camp Nou is significantly stronger in almost every department.
Five players from Gerardo Martino’s side who lined up that night are still in the Barcelona squad, and four are likely to start this clash.
Neymar, Sergi Roberto, Sergi Busquets, Pique and Javier Mascherano played, with the latter likely to be benched after his nightmare evening against Alaves on Saturday.
Barcelona were beaten 2-1 at home, and the Argentinian was caught out for both goals. He wasn’t the only culpable party for the defeat, with nobody impressing on the team—or even playing close to their usual level. After Pique and Samuel Umtiti were rested, though, they are expected to come back in to face Celtic.
Of the other four—perhaps bar Busquets, who was already playing at a high level—all have taken significant leaps forward.
Despite scoring a hat-trick, the Neymar of 2013 was a stick insect compared to the forward Luis Enrique has at his disposal today.
He is far tougher, smarter and better at making the right decision—and he still has boundless potential, with acres of it to stretch out in.
Something that has not changed is the atmosphere around Neymar, who seems destined to have controversy follow him. Part of that comes with his provocative way of playing, though.
Celtic captain Scott Brown was sent off when the teams met in Glasgow on October 1, 2013, for tripping up Neymar and then swiping a kick at the player’s arm when he was on the ground. The Hoops were furious and even more so when the Brazilian surged through enemy territory before playing in Alexis Sanchez, who crossed for Cesc Fabregas to head home past Fraser Forster.
To this day opponents are riled by Neymar; sometimes because they think his flicks and tricks are disrespectful, but mainly because he’s just on a different plane of ability to them. They don’t like it when he falls—but then they shouldn’t have kicked him until he did.
Neymar will still be criticised for his performances on the field; “he’s too selfish,” “he runs down blind alleys,” and “did he really need to backheel it?” His behaviour off the pitch is also analysed; “he parties too much,” “why has he got a new haircut, shouldn’t he concentrate on the football?” and “he’s starting a singing career?”
But as Barcelona Football Blog writer Kevin Williams neatly put it—so what?
He wrote:
If Neymar wants to have a music career, so what? If and when his performances on the pitch begin to suffer (he was far and away the best player in attack against Alaves), his coach will deal with it, and people can scoff and snark then. For now, it’s probably worth understanding how you would have been if you were 22 years old, worth countless millions of dollars and an international celebrity. My guess is you would have had a hobby or two.
So relax.
Sergi Roberto, meanwhile, has been transformed, turning from a man to make up the numbers as a La Masia graduate, into one of the most impressive players on the team and able to play in several different positions without letting his level drop.
Pique has turned from a good defender into a truly great one, arguably the best in the world in his position right now. That much is shown when he is missing from Barcelona’s side. Without Pique, Mascherano looks worse; with Pique, Umtiti has been able to settle extremely quickly.
It hasn’t always been easy to find a partner for him, but that was because his form was erratic, and he made mistakes regularly. Now when Pique errs, it’s a genuine surprise.
Messi had been injured for the game in Glasgow and the return in Barcelona as well, but he is expected to start on Tuesday after a brief, disappointing appearance against Alaves from the substitutes' bench. That won’t exactly be a shock for Celtic as they have faced him before, but the current edition of the Argentinian is a totally different player to the one they played in 2012.
Jose Manuel Pinto started in goal, Martin Montoya at right-back and Adriano at left-back, with Pedro joining Alexis and Neymar up front and the legendary Xavi Hernandez pulling the strings in midfield.
If Brown, Nir Bitton and Mikael Lustig, who started in December 2013 for Celtic and are likely to do so again this time around, found Neymar hard to deal with then, he will be a true nightmare now. That's particularly true when you factor Messi and the player who has done most to transform Barcelona in recent years—Luis Suarez—into the equation.
Now Barcelona have someone who plays nasty, fights and scraps for the ball, and loves getting into the box and setting up camp. In years past, they would have needed to wait for Messi to mosey into the penalty area to finish a move he probably started as well.
And if Suarez embodies that fighting spirit in the team, then Lucho certainly does on the bench. If Martino was a soft hand, Luis Enrique is an iron fist. The team's determination, motivation and winning mentality have all grown in his tenure.
Of course, the flip side of the coin is that Celtic have changed, too. Luis Enrique and Jordi Alba both noted it as they spoke before a packed press room at the club’s training ground on Monday morning.
Alba said: “We’re keen to start well, to get three points against a rival who have improved a lot since we last played them three years ago. They’re good with the ball, they’ll make things difficult for us.”
His manager hailed new Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers, whom he says has already started having a big impact on the team’s play.
“He was here [in Barcelona], not just watching games from the senior team but Barca B at the Miniestadi and the youth teams,” explained Luis Enrique. “He loves good football, he is a coach that likes to play on the front foot, take the game to the opposition and you can see that already in his short time at Celtic, with good signings, players that will cause us problems. I like Rodgers as a coach and his idea of how to play football.
“There were a lot easier teams in pot four than Celtic, but we welcome the challenge of playing against a historic club.”
The Barcelona coach was also wary of Celtic’s danger men, particularly after they smashed archrivals Rangers 5-1 on Saturday.
“The signings they have made [are impressive] with [Moussa] Dembele up front after a hat-trick against their biggest rivals, on the wings with [Scott] Sinclair on one side and [James] Forrest or [Patrick] Roberts on the other,” he added. “They have many players prepared to cause us problems.”
And while there is no doubt Celtic will be looking to emulate the success of Alaves, they will largely be concerned by trying to stop the might of a Barcelona side looking to come out swinging after that defeat and launch their Champions League campaign in perfect fashion.
Rik Sharma is Bleacher Report's lead Barcelona correspondent. All information and quotes obtained firsthand unless specified. Follow him on Twitter here: @riksharma_.