Defender confident Scottish giants will not be able to repeat last season's upset over Barcelona tonight
Dani Alves is confident that Barcelona will emerge victorious in tonight’s Champions League encounter against Celtic.
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Barcelona players can’t hide their dejection after Celtic scored their second goal in a Champions League Group encounter at Celtic Park in November last year; (Inset) Dani Alves. Pic/Getty Images
The Catalans were surprisingly beaten 1-2 at Celtic Park last season, but Alves feels the Scottish champions got lucky the last time they met and will not cause an upset again.
“We lost in Scotland last season but the reality was it wasn’t a fair result,” the 30-year-old told the Daily Record.u00a0“We accepted that we lost but it was down to individual errors. It was not down to Celtic playing better football than us on the night.
“They were lucky. It was a one-off that won’t happen again.u00a0“We have anticipated the way that Celtic will play against us and we have to accept that. If they adopt the same approach again, they will be very fortunate to get anything from the game this time,” he added.
Barca will have to make do without the services of Lionel Messi against Celtic, but Alves believes Neymar will prove to be an able deputy for the Argentine.
“Celtic are aware about our quality but Neymar is a new challenge they have not yet faced.”
Meanwhile, Celtic warmed up for the clash in the best possible manner on Saturday when they bounced back from a shock defeat to Morton in the Scottish League Cup with victory at Kilmarnock.
The Scottish Premiership champions survived a fightback from their hosts before prevailing 5-2 as Georgios Samaras fired in a hat-trick.
Weekend goalscorer Kris Commons expects Barcelona to be fully aware of the threat Celtic pose as they attempt to register their first points of the group stage after a battling 0-2 loss at Milan.
“It is going to be difficult but I think it will be very unprofessional of them if they didn’t think that we were a threat,” the midfielder said.u00a0“For us, it is about staying focused and trying to repeat what we did last year.”
Barcelona will once again be without left-back Jordi Alba due to a hamstring problem, while fellow defender Carles Puyol and playmaker Isaac Cuenca are recovering from knee surgery.
Celtic are missing close-season arrival Steven Mouyokolo, who ruptured his Achilles in training before the Milan clash.u00a0
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