Barça produced a sublime performance in Glasgow to take a 2-3 win away from Celtic Park against Scottish champions Celtic in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16.

It was nearly 4 years since any club managed to come away from Celtic Park with victory in the UEFA Champions League and it was Barça who did so back in the 2004/05 group stage of the UEFA Champions League, beating their hosts 1-3.

4 years on and Barça repeat the trick by putting 3 goals past the Scottish champions and becoming the only team to beat Celtic at their famous home since that win back in 2004.

However, victory this time around was a little bit more complicated as the Blaugrana twice had to come back from behind before sealing victory with a rather fortuitous 79th minute goal by Lionel Messi.

Despite dominating the game right from the off, Barça wasted several chances. Thierry Henry couldn't connect with a wonderful pass from Ronaldinho which put him through six yards from the Celtic goal whilst Deco had a shot saved spectacularly by Celtic keeper Artur Boruc. Thierry Henry again was denied after 19 year old Celtic defender Paul Caddis clear his volley off the line.

Celtic were only hanging on by a thread and a Barça goal seemed inevitable but with their first attack on goal, Celtic capitalised on some horrible Barça defending to put them 1-0 up against the run of play in the 16th minute.

Carles Puyol and Andrés Iniesta managed to scramble the ball away from Irish winger Aiden McGeady but the ball fell to Lee Nailor who put in a inch perfect cross to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink .

But only two minutes later, Lionel Messi and Deco played a sublime one-two which resulted in a brilliant equalising goal from the Argentine maestro.

On 38 minutes, Celtic embarked on only their second attack of the match and that resulted with Aiden McGeady again causing captain Puyol a lot of trouble before he put in a cross for ex-Dundee United skipper Barry Robson who duly headed the ball over Victor Valdés and into the back of the net. Two shots, two goals for Celtic and that's how it ended at half time.

The second half continued in the same manner as the first with Barça piling forward in search of an equalising goal and on 52 minutes, that goal duly came courtesy of a trademark Thierry Henry goal.

Gary Caldwell's stray pass was picked up by Ronaldinho, who put Henry through in the penalty area and from a cute angle, Henry opened his body up and produced that wonderful trademark Thierry Henry finish to curl the ball around Boruc and into the top right hand corner.

Barça continued to push forward in the hope of finding a 3rd away goal and that 3rd goal came on the 79th minutes thanks to some awful defending from Celtic.

Substitute Samuel Eto'o, playing his first match since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana, put in a wonderful pass from out on the right flank to put Messi in on goal, but Gary Caldwell managed to get in on time and clear the ball. Unfortunately for Caldwell, his clearance rocketed off his own team mate Massimo Donati and the ball came back perfectly for Messi, who shuffled the ball onto his left foot and slotted it into the bottom left hand corner.

As Celtic started to pour forward in search of an equaliser of their own, spaces started to appear and Barça nearly made the hosts pay for that with a 4th goal.

Carles Puyol, in acres of space down the right, put in a wonderful low cross into the Thierry Henry in the middle who sidefooted the ball towards goal but Boruc, nicknamed the "Holy Goal", produced a quiet spectacular save with his left foot to stop the ball from going to the back of the net.

Henry then had a second goal rightfully chalked off for offside.

Then in stoppage time came some controversy after Greek substitute striker Georgios Samaras was booked after trying to win a penalty with a horrible dive.

Statistics
Barça dominated the game throughout and the statistics from tonight's match support that. The Blaugrana 63% of the ball, whilst they had 9 shots on goal compared to Celtic's 3. As well as those 9 shots on goal, Barça had another 10 shots off target compared to Celtic's 1 which means overall, Barça had some 15 more attempts on goal than their hosts.

Another statistic which Barça will be happy to know is that every team who has won their first leg of a knock out tie away from home in the Champions League has always gone on to progress to the next round.

Barça were also the only team on matchday 7 of the UEFA Champions League to register a win away from home.