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Celtic boss: Barcelona's Neymar is a great talent

Celtic manager Neil Lennon was again impressed by the performance of Barcelona young gun Neymar in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

The Brazil ace scored a hat-trick and provided an assists as the Catalan giants demolished Celtic 6-1 at the Nou Camp in their final group stage game.

Neymar performed remarkably well in Barca's 1-0 at Celtic Park in October and his showing in the return bout was certainly not lost on Lennon.

"I was impressed with him at Celtic Park, he is a talent and has a great future in the game," he said.

The former Santos starlet produced a clever move to beat off a challenge from Efe Ambrose before cutting back from the byline for Pedro to net Barcelona's second goal in the 39th minute before scoring his first with a simple tap-in from close range after Hoops keeper Fraser Forster had kept out Martin Montoya's initial effort.

Neymar made it 4-0 to the Blaugrana early in the second half when he hammered home an exquisite finish after a neat one-two with Xavi before completing his hat-trick which came following a nutmeg on Ambrose and a shot which deflected off Adam Matthews on the line.

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Andrew Slevison
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