Marshall plus for Celtic

By Alex O'Henley

If there is one crumb of comfort to be drawn from Celtic FC's 3-1 opening UEFA Champions League defeat by FC Barcelona it must surely lie in the performance of their young goalkeeper, David Marshall.

Important appearance
The 19-year-old Glaswegian burst on to the scene last season when these two sides met in the fourth round of the UEFA Cup at Celtic Park after Rab Douglas and Barcelona's Thiago Motta had been dismissed following an altercation in the tunnel at half-time. Marshall was thrown in as a boy that night but emerged as a man having kept a clean sheet as Celtic went on to record a famous 1-0 victory.

Great performance
But that was nothing compared to his heroics in the Camp Nou a fortnight later when he repelled wave after wave of Barcelona attacks to secure a priceless 0-0 draw which guaranteed the Scottish side a place in the quarter-finals.

Penalty save
It would appear that Marshall reserves his best performances for matches against the Catalan giants for he was at it again last Tuesday night defying Ronaldinho with a penalty save that almost turned the game in Celtic's favour. Within minutes Celtic had levelled through Chris Sutton, but Marshall revealed he had little time to dwell on his achievement.

No satisfaction
"Funnily enough I hardly gave it a second thought at the time," he said. "Playing in goal is all about focus, so straight away I was looking for the corner and making sure I was ready for that. I suppose it did seem to give the boys a boost, but in the end it never counted for that much. Any personal satisfaction is wiped away as soon as the final whistle goes and that was the way it was for me."

Larsson goal
By common consent Barcelona were the better side especially in the first half when new signings Deco and Ludovic Giuly combined seamlessly with Ronaldinho, who justified his return to the first team by setting up the Portuguese playmaker for the opening goal. Barça wilted momentarily when Celtic equalised, but former Celtic striker Henrik Larsson came off the substitutes' bench to steady the ship and with eight minutes remaining the Swede calmly rounded his former team-mate Marshall to score Barcelona's third.

Winning momentum
"We knew at half-time we had not done ourselves justice and there were a few choice words said about what needed to be done," said Marshall. "We came out flying and after the goal I didn't touch the ball for about 15 minutes. At that point I really thought that we were going to win."

Still hope
Marshall and his team-mates must now focus on their next two games away from home against AC Milan on 29 September and FC Shakhtar Donetsk on 20 October, and despite their early setback the young the keeper believes Celtic can still progress to the knockout stages of the competition.

Marshall plan
"We're still in the competition - there's only one game gone after all and I certainly won't be going to the San Siro with any fear," he said. "We could have beaten Barcelona and we've managed to get some terrific results away from home against some great teams in recent seasons and hopefully we can now go over to Milan and do the same. We've got a massive double-header coming up and we have to believe we can still do it."