This exit from the Champions League for Celtic last night might have been a lot more humbling than it proved. Going out 4-2 over two legs to Barcelona was no disgrace, especially as Frank Rijkaard’s men took the lead after just two minutes, dismembering whatever dreams Celtic might have had of clawing back their 3-2 first-leg deficit from the meeting in Glasgow.

Yet again Gordon Strachan’s team has touched its glass ceiling in Europe. The gulf in class between these sides over these 180 minutes has been glaring, though Celtic can certainly pass the ball much better than last night.

Massimo Donati, in particular, spent the opening 45 minutes prodding around passes as if blindfolded before being spared any further suffering.

Strachan, his Celtic players, and the club’s chief executive, Peter Lawwell, must now go back to the drawing board to wonder how the club might climb higher than the last 16. Given their unique place in the old European Cup, the club have worthy ambitions, though the political and financial con-traints of Scottish football hinder their dreams, just as they do those of Rangers. In reality, Strachan can surely be satisfied with two successive last16 places in the past two seasons.

Last night, though, made poor viewing for Celtic, and Artur Boruc, as mad as this goalkeeper can be, once more salvaged their respect. Yet after events in Glasgow two weeks ago, it all unfolded in abject fashion.

Few had believed that Celtic stood a chance. What some of the 6,000 travelling supporters in Catalonia had dreamt of was a match that might at least have lingered scoreless for an hour and then, had the gods so much as smirked in Celtic’s direction, allowed Strachan’s men to score and give the game a sudden edge. With Barcelona striking so early, though, leaving Celtic requiring three goals to go through, this was a classic case of tactics being stillborn for Strachan.

What was a Celtic manager to do, chasing such a dream? Strachan dropped Scott McDonald, the club’s leading scorer, and played Shunsuke Nakamura through the middle, just behind Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. The plan might have worked, if they had been allowed so much as five intact minutes to see it in action, but Xavi’s goal after two minutes was brutal and soul-destroying.

The Scottish champions compounded it all with some woeful passing. Donati, in particular, put on yet another of those displays that have simply added credence to the theory that Celtic wasted £3 million-plus last summer in hiring him from AC Milan. A willing if one-paced runner, the Italian has an unnerving habit of striking simple passes to the wrong feet.

Scarcely had the game broken sweat and the home side were ahead. It was a simple, dynamic move that tore through Celtic and left Boruc groping air as the ball went past him. Xavi started and finished the move, via Ronaldinho’s release and Sylvinho’s cross, which left Xavi volleying past Boruc from seven yards.

It left Celtic with 88 minutes in which to find three goals – normally a simple task against Kilmarnock or Gretna in Glasgow, but not, alas, in the Nou Camp.

For Celtic the game ambled along, misshapen, one-sided and suddenly without vitality. Victor Valdes, a bored Barcelona goalkeeper, might have brought along his binoculars to watch some of the football at the other end of the field. Samuel Eto’o chested just wide of goal and Boruc tipped Carles Puyol’s shot over, while some home fans had the temerity to boo some of their own misplaced passes.

For the Catalans, there was the pitiful sight of one of their greatest adopted sons, Lionel Messi, hobbling from the pitch in tears in the opening half. The little Argentinian had been caught accidentally eight minutes earlier by Lee Naylor’s challenge, but had seemed to recover. Sprinting past Donati, however, Messi broke down ten minutes before half-time and left the field distraught. The injury was revealed to be a torn thigh muscle.

Donati paid for his sloth at half-time, being whisked off by Strachan, to be replaced by Evander Sno. For what it was worth, the big Dutchman made an immediate impact, supplying one of the best passes of the night to release Scott Brown into space, from which Celtic earned their first corner after 47 minutes.

Then Vennegoor of Hesselink, just seconds before being replaced by Georgios Samaras, headed wide from Aiden McGeady’s cross as Celtic at last made an impression. But the task was self-evidently impossible.

Boruc made further saves, first from Ronaldinho then Deco, as Barcelona applied fresh pressure. The truth is, Celtic escaped relatively unscathed, and might even have equalised when Valdes saved from Nakamura in the final minute.

Barcelona (4-3-3): V Valdes – G Zambrotta, L Thuram, C Puyol, Sylvinho – Xavi (sub: E Gudjohnsen, 81min), Y Touré (sub: Edmilson, 61), Deco - L Messi (sub: T Henry, 37), S Eto’o, Ronaldinho. Substitutes not used: Pinto, A Iniesta, E Abidal, B Krkic.

Celtic (4-4-1-1): A Boruc - M Wilson, S McManus, G Caldwell, L Naylor – S Brown, P Hartley (sub: S McDonald, 77), M Donati (sub: E Sno, 46), A McGeady – S Nakamura – J Vennegoor of Hesselink (sub: G Samaras, 55). Substitutes not used: M Brown, S Pressley, B Robson, D O’Dea. Referee: P Vink (Holland).