1- Neymar scored his first hat-trick for Barça in a Champions League group stage game against Celtic on 11 December 2013. The match ended 6-1 to the Catalans and made sure of top spot in the group.
2- The last time FC Barcelona played in Group C was in the season of the first treble, 2008/09, when they were drawn together with Sporting Lisbon, Basel andShakhtar Donetsk.
3- Borussia Mönchengladbach is the only one of the three sides that Barça have never met before in a competitive match, although the Germans were guests at theJoan Gamper Trophy twice in a row in 1972 and 1973. On their first visit, Borussia won the four-team competition, but didn’t meet the host club, who lost to CSKA Sofia in the semi-final. A year later, Barça and Borussia played in the final. The game ended 2-2 and Barça won the trophy on penalties.
4- As well as manager Pep Guardiola, no fewer than nine members of the Manchester City squad have a Liga past (Willy Caballero, Bravo, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Yaya Touré, Silva, Jesús Navas, Nolito and Agüero).
5- Glasgow Celtic and FC Barcelona have already met this year. They played a friendly in Dublin on July 31, with Barça winning 3-1 thanks to an own goal and two from Arda Turan and Munir.
6- The teams in this group have amassed a total of six European Cup and Champions League titles between them: FC Barcelona (1992, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015) and Celtic (1967). Borussia Mönchengladbach’s best performance was in 1977, when they reached the final but lost to Liverpool.
7- Mönchengladbach may never have met Barça but some of their players have. Álvaro Domínguez did so with Atlético Madrid, Kramer did with Bayer Leverkusen and Óscar Wendt with Copenhagen.
8- Celtic and Barça have been in the same group three times in the last five years (2012/13, 2013/14 and 2016/17). In 2012/13 they both progressed, while in 2013/14 Barça topped the group and the Scots finished bottom.
9- Luis Suárez scored his first ever knockout phase goals for Barça against Manchester City at the Eithad Stadium on 24 February 2015. He scored twice in a 2-1 and Barça marched on from there to life the trophy in Berlin.
10- Leo Messi has fond memories of Celtic Park. He’s scored three times in the Glasgow stadium, twice in 2008 and once in 2012.
