The Celtic World Cup Hero, The Benchwarmer And The Greatest Of All Time.

Tonight, the Croatian national team finally ran out of road.

They have been exceptional in this World Cup but after going to extra time and penalties in their last two matches, and especially in that storming match against Brazil, you always wondered if they would have the energy to stop another one of the super-teams, and the one with most at stake.

Right from the start, I’ve felt that this was Messi’s time.

His final World Cup, the only major trophy he hasn’t won in his glittering career, the pinnacle of achievement and the one he wants most because it is still what separates him in the eyes of some people from the pantheon where still reigns Pele and Maradona.

Messi is at least their equal. I regard him as The Greatest Of All Time because he has been at the top of the world game since he was a teenager and he has done things no-one else could have dreamed of or conceived.

Tonight, well into his 30’s, he was a force of nature. He scored from the spot and he laid on a goal with a piece of spellbinding skill.

This thing now has a momentum all its own. I didn’t believe Croatia would stand in the way of it, and it wasn’t even close on the night. For all that, their team can take enormous pride and satisfaction with them as they go forward to the third place play-off match and aim for a medal. They have a good chance of winning one too.

Juranovic was solid and steady. He had a very good game.

He did nothing that will cast any doubt in anyone’s mind who was thinking of signing him in this window. It has been a great tournament for him, and he still has one game left to showcase his skills.

The biggest laugh of the night was the tweet out of Ibrox saying that they would be “cheering on” their man Barisic. Wonderful! You can imagine the response that got from Celtic fans online.

The only place he’s made his mark in this tournament is in drumming his fingers on the substitutes bench. The one game he did play, against Japan, was so hilarious and his performance so sub-par it has been optioned for Comedy Central.

In the end, Messi marches on towards France, probably, and a date with destiny. Juranovic marches on too, to the Third Place match where he’ll certainly play and either to another title with Celtic or a big money move to whichever club pays us the most money.

Barisic goes back to Ibrox. To stormy weather. Uncertainty over his position.

And training sessions with The Mooch who is apparently not convinced by the fitness of the players.

He will have been horrified if he watched the lumbering shambles of that game against Japan. Unless, like a certain hapless Record reporter, he also thought he had “a stormer.”

In which case, that club is in more trouble than even I believe.