Celtic striker Miku has defended his team from claims in some quarters that their displays against Barcelona were anti-football.
The Glasgow giants overcame the Catalans 2-1 in their Champions League clash on Wednesday, although it was achieved with just 11 per cent possession, but former Getafe man Miku maintained the ends justified the means.
“People can say what they want but this is one of the few ways there is to beat Barcelona. We got behind the ball and were effective up front,” he told AS.
“Other teams with better squads than Celtic’s have tried and failed. What team in the world would not defend to beat Barcelona?
“Every side has their own strengths but luck also comes into it. Look at what everyone said after the Champions League semi-final between Barca and Chelsea, that Di Matteo’s team was this and that.
“Now nobody remembers it and players such as Fernando Torres and Juan Mata, for example, won the competition against Bayern Munich.
“We knew against Barca we would see little of the ball but we won, right? The example is what happened to Rayo Vallecano in La Liga [boss Paco Jemez had commented he would have been embarrassed to have played like Celtic in their 2-1 defeat at the Camp Nou], but their Coach has never played in the Champions League.
“If you go out to take on Barcelona by playing football then you get five goals put past you and end up looking stupid. Football involves all kinds of tastes and colours.”
Miku maintained that the way in which Neil Lennon’s team set up against Barca was not their usual style of playing.
“Celtic fans are used to seeing their team control games where they have possession and score lots of goals. But they are not fools and realise it was worth it to play as we did [at Parkhead] because we beat Barcelona, the best team in history, and now it depends on us whether we reach the last 16 or not.”
