The dominance of the English clubs in this season's Champions League was confirmed last night by Liverpool's 0-1 win over Inter Milan. There are now four English clubs in the last eight of the competition and bookies are only offering odds of 2/5 on an English team lifting the trophy in May. With Roma, Schalke and Fenerbahce as clear outsiders, Barça look like being the only team with any chance of stopping the English.

After losing Leo Messi through injury and suffering two defeats to Atletico Madrid and Villarreal, the naturally pessimistic cule may feel that our situation is impossible. However, as I said the other day the other clubs are having their problems too.

Manchester United are probably the team that Barça fans fear most, and when you look at the talent of Cristiano R...

The 20,000 Celtic fans who travelled to Barcelona deserve to give themselves a pat on the back for their exemplary behaviour in the city. The police have praised them as have the town council. The organization was helped by the collaboration of Celtic Football Club who did everything to make things run smoothly. The relationship between the two clubs has been strengthened even more by the two recent encounters. Many thanks to Celtic and to their fans. Here are some more photos taken from the press of their visit.

FC Barcelona reached the last eight of the Champions League with a 1-0 victory over Celtic, but the night was spoilt for Barça due to a muscle injury to Leo Messi which could see him out for at least a month. Messi pulled up in the 34th minute and immediately put his hands to his head in frustration. First reports say it is a torn biceps femoris muscle in the left leg which is the same injury that he suffered against Valencia. That time he was out for five weeks but it all depends on the size of the tear and we will have to wait until tomorrow's scans to know the extent of the injury. 

Gabi Milito was forced to sit out after getting a poor night's sleep due to a fever, so given that Marquez is still injured, Lilian Thuram partnered Carles Puyol in central defence.  Iniesta, Henry and Abid...

Gabi Milito has had to make a late withdrawal from the Barça squad for tonight's Champions League match with Celtic due to suffering a fever. Edmilson has been brought into the squad as a replacement. Milito was expected to partner Carles Puyol in central defence but that role will now most likely go to Lilian Thuram.

I noticed a few in town yesterday, but today Celtic fans are arriving in Barcelona by the thousands. This morning Camp Nou was swamped when tickets went on sale but for Celtic fans they have the problem that to buy one you need to show a passport or ID card that is not British or Irish. The bhoys  are in the hunt to find a friendly local who will buy a ticket for them.

Some Celtic fans have organised a campaign to clear up their own litter in an attempt to distance themselves from Rangers who were criticised for the mess they left behind. Bags bearing the message "Celtic fans keeping Barcelona beautiful" both in English and Catalan are being handed out to fans to collect their rubbish. The Barcelona council have declared that drinking, buying or selling alcohol in the street can face a fin...

You'll be pleased to hear that Toure Yaya and Bojan Krkic have overcome their physical problems and return to the squad for tomorrow night's game with Celtic. Giovani and Edmilson have been left out to make way, while Rafa Marquez has still not got over his foot injury.

Celtic will have Scott Brown back in midfield after he missed the game at Celtic Park through suspension, and manager Gordon Strachan will have to decide between Paul Hartley, Massimo Donati and Barry Robson to play alongside him in midfield. There is a possibility that Georgios Samaras will play up front in place of either Scott McDonald or the other guy with the ridiculously long name. However, it is in defence again where Strachan has most problems and he will have to decide whether to play youngster Paul Caddis or Mark Wil...

This is a message from a Barça fan to all Celtic fans who are travelling to Barcelona for next week's game. While the football fans in the city generally think you are all fantastic I should remind you that not everyone in the city is a football fan. The group you should be most aware of are the thieves.

Unfortunately, Barcelona does have a problem with thieves. In particular they target tourists, but the visitors they probably see as best pickings are football supporters from the UK. There is quite a simple logic to this: you will most likely drink a lot of alcohol and you will probably be carrying a fair amount of cash. There are three main types to watch out for.

First the type who comes up to you on the street saying something like "ah my friend, you like football, barça good, celt...

Despite drinking more than I should last night, I woke up early this morning feeling fresh and energetic. Last night's scintillating exhibition of football was still buzzing around in my head. Ninety minutes of fast flowing football in front of a packed house of what surely must be the best most passionate fans in Europe, is just about the best advert for the game that you could find.

Barça fans have plenty of reasons to feel proud and optimistic today. For the first time this season all the key players are fit at the same time, the team played with a hunger and desire that has been missing all too often in the last year. Messi found the net again for the first time since November and looked to be back to his sparkling best, Deco gave a performance in midfield that was reminiscent of his first ...

Football Club Barcelona all but booked their place in the last eight of the Champions League with a 2-3 win over Celtic. Very rarely will Celtic Park have witnessed such a superb display of football as that offered by Barça tonight. Two goals from Leo Messi and a Thierry Henry special gave Barça the victory which looked in doubt as Celtic took a 2-1 lead in at half time.

Frank Rijkaard surprised everyone by putting Ronaldinho back in the starting lineup for the first time in 2008, but the Brazilian responded with his best game for a long time. Samuel Eto'o was not considered ready to start the game and Xavi was also left on the bench.

Barça started well  and after 12 minutes Henry intercepted a poor defensive pass before pulling the ball back to Iniesta who forced the first save o...

The return of Samuel Eto'o has meant Frank Rijkaard has left Bojan Krkic out of the 18-man squad for tomorrow night's Champions League match at Celtic Park. Bojan will have just one more chance in the return game in two weeks' time to become the youngest goalscorer in Champions League history. The good news is that for the first time in the entire season Barça are in a position to put out a full strength team.

In my article from three weeks ago, Can Barça win the Champions League I talked about nine players (Valdés, Puyol, Marquez, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Iniesta, Messi and Eto'o) as being in good enough on this season's form to be compared with any of the top players in Europe. They are all fit to play tomorrow. ...