Bhoy wonders
The Glasgow side clung onto their 1-0 lead from Parkhead to book their place in the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup, and a tie with Villareal, thanks in the main to the heroics of the 19-year-old.
It was an incredible answer to those who doubted that the youngster and Celtic's walking wounded would be up for the challenge against a team which has won nine straight matches in La Liga and could count as the most in-form side on the continent.
It had taken forty years for revenge, the last time the two sides met it had been an easy progress for Barcelona but revenge tasted sweet.
After the physical blows traded at Parkhead, in the tunnel and on the pitch, and then the snide jeering which followed whenever anyone connected to FC Barcelona was asked about the 'style' of Martin O'Neill's team, this was a genuine knockout punch.
The feeling here was not whether Barcelona would beat Celtic but by how many goals, who would score the most individually and whether it was actually worth these Scottish heathens, who couldn't actually play football, turning up at all.
By just after 10.55, Spanish time, all that nonsense was made redundant.
"We shall not, we shall not be moved" rang around this ancient stadium, all the Catalans had gone home to plan who they were going to savage for this result (the coach, UEFA, the referee etc) and the visiting fans from Scotland and Ireland finally settled on a massive, massive version of "You'll Never Walk Alone".
This performance will rate amongst the all-time lows in the Camp Nou, simply because Barcelona played so poorly and Celtic did little more than suffocate their hosts and hack the ball away from the danger area when threatened.
No-one at Barcelona contemplated losing to Celtic, still less failing score once across two games some misjudgement that proved.
It had been amusing to watch Barcelona shocked out of their complacency earlier in the match thanks to thousands upon thousands of green and white clad fans.
Although the performance on the pitch was totally fascinating there was also an interesting scenario being played out in the stands.
The Camp Nou is a place of legend, no doubt of that. Yet it is over-hyped and does not usually rouse the team.
The Catalan faithful normally reserve their most strident criticism for their own team only bursting lungs in the most extreme of circumstances.
The truth is Barcelona were not themselves last night. The first-half was truly weak from them and their creative play and winning mentality were both sadly lacking.
There were few chances to speak of and one could not avoid the suspicion that Ronaldinho's 24th birthday celebrations went on for a few too many hours on Monday night perhaps right through to Wednesday morning judging by his performance last night.
It was so strange, from a Spanish point of view, to see the Brazilian so frustrated that he stamped on Alan Thompson in the first-half.
The Brazilian is often booked but rarely for such violent petulance and this was an early indication that life was not comfortable.
From minute one it was evident that Celtic had learned the lessons of pressing teams like Osasuna and Seville. Celtic worked and worked and focussed on preventing Xavi from turning the motor in midfield.
This was their night and they knew it from midway through the first-half when Marc Overmars and Sergio Garcia were thrown on for Luis Enrique and Michael Reiziger to no great effect.
When Rijkaard took off Luis Enrique in the 63rd minute and used young Sergio Garcia in his place you would normally expect to hear deep dissatisfaction from the Camp Nou stands.
Instead there was a massive, belly-deep roar for the youngster which signified Celtic had stifled Barcelona's creative players.
When the final whistle went there was nothing but stunned silence from the Catalans and the roar of a happy but disbelieving Scottish support splitting the night air above the Camp Nou.
Visca Celtic as they say in Catalunya.
: Valdes, Reiziger (Overmars 53), Puyol (Marquez 34), Oleguer, Xavi, Cocu, Gerard, Gabri, Luis Enrique (Sergio 64), Ronaldinho, Luis Garcia.
: Marshall, Kennedy, McNamara (Miller 52), Varga, Agathe, Lennon, Pearson, Petrov, Thompson, Larsson, Sutton (Sylla 83).
: D. Messina (Italy).
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