Lionel Messi believed one Celtic player was destined to end up at Manchester United after what he had seen him do in the Champions League against Barcelona.
The Argentinian phenomenon faced Celtic back in 2012 with the Catalan giants and were huge favourites to win at Celtic Park.
With a plethora of world-class talents like Carlos Puyol, Cesc Fabregas and Xavi, goals from Victor Wanyama and Tony Watt put Barcelona to the sword in a famous win that sent shockwaves throughout football.
Messi was stunned by Fraser Forster’s Celtic performance
But Celtic had Fraser Forster. The big Englishman was in the form of his life in that match. So much so that the Spanish press named him the ‘La Gran Muralla’, ‘The Great Wall’.
And it was a performance that left Messi convinced that Barcelona may have signed him when Victor Valdes left his old club.
Messi said [Daily Star], “The performances of Fraser Forster against us were talked about for a long time.
“There was one game in Scotland where he was not human, it is the best goalkeeping performance I have seen.
“When Victor Valdes said he was leaving we even talked about him playing here. I was sure he would end up at Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester United.”
Celtic were massive underdogs for the tie against Barcelona that night. With a central defensive partnership of Efe Ambrose and Kelvin Wilson, not one person gave the Hoops a chance of scoring a goal, never mind beating the La Liga giants.
But Fraser Forster had other ideas. Despite Barcelona’s 83% possession and 25 shots on goal, Forster repelled 14 of those in a goalkeeping performance that will live long in the memories of the Celtic support.
Brendan Rodgers will be hoping that Joe Hart will provide a performance like that for Celtic tonight against Lazio if it is needed. But then, if Hart performs even half as well as Forster did that night then the three points will be in the bag for Celtic tonight.
In other news, ‘I like him a lot’: Lazio manager Maurizio Sarri shares the Celtic man he really rates ahead of tonight’s game