Honest Boruc is the fall guy as Bhoys bow out in Spain

The Polish international got a hand to the third-minute Xavi Hernandez goal which ended Parkhead involvement at the last-16 stage, but failed to keep the ball out.

Despite reeling off a series of top-quality saves from Ronaldinho, Deco, Carles Puyol and substitute Eidur Gudjohnsen, however, Celtic star man Boruc insisted on taking personal responsibility for a fate effectively sealed in Glasgow two weeks ago.

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"I wasn't really happy with my performance and should have done better with the goal," claimed the £10million-rated keeper. "The ball did move in a weird manner, but I would save that kind of attempt nine times out of 10. I just don't think I was good enough.

"My performance wasn't as good as it should be and I have to do better. The fact I made saves after that doesn't matter. We lost 1-0 and those saves didn't change anything. If you want to improve and become a better pro and player, you have to set high standards for yourself and keep progressing. These are the kind of games you must show that in."

A minor second-half rally failed to secure the kind of Lazarus-style comeback Celtic needed. Starting the night 3-2 down from the home leg, Gordon Strachan's side needed to score twice without reply.

As Barca put together 19 passes for the first goal, Boruc was in no mood for standing back and applauding the Catalans' brilliance.

Insistent that Celtic have to aim for better, he added: "It doesn't matter to me who we play against. Champions League games, in general, are something special for us and that is why we should play better.

"I don't think the last 16 is as good as it gets for us. I hope not, anyway. But we have to try to do a little bit more in games away from home.

"I don't know what is wrong with us in that regard. Maybe it is something to do with our mentality when we go out on to the pitch. At Celtic Park, everything is good and it is down to our form there that we are in the last 16. We can't just accept we are going to lose to the likes of Barcelona. The first game against them was a little bit weird because we gave away three goals.

"I don't know if Barcelona will win the tournament. We are not there, so I don't care."

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Central defenders Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus also earned passmarks for the SPL champions on a night when damage limitation was the height of the ambition.

Finding positives afterwards, Caldwell insisted Celtic could be proud of their achievement in reaching the last 16 for a second successive year, saying: "We could quite easily have buckled and thrown the towel in but no one involved is like that. We stuck to our task and in the second half we had some good moments.

"We have to learn from this as players and want to improve and become better as individuals. That's the only way we are going to progress beyond this stage. It's an experience for us we must learn from and look back on and take the positives from. We have to take our mistakes and improve.

"If we get a slightly kinder draw, we could progress further, but it's a learning curve. We should be proud to play at a stadium like this. We should be proud of the campaign. It was a disappointing first half. Obviously, losing the goal was very disappointing and the way we played in the first half was poor.

"But, second half, I think we showed what we need to do at this level if we want to progress and it was encouraging."

Tipping Frank Rijkaard's side as potential winners of the competition, the Scotland international added: "Last year Milan beat us and went on to win it and going forward Barca are as good as anyone. Better teams might cause them more problems at the back but going forward they are exceptional."