But no other result resonates further than Barcelona’s consummate dispatching of an excellent Chelsea.
Antonio Conte’s men threatened like few others at Camp Nou during more than a decade of shimmering domestic and continental glory. Spanish left wing-back Marcos Alonso struck a post and was denied a strong penalty shout, Germany centre-back Antonio Rudiger also rattled the woodwork, France’s ubiquitous N’Golo Kante remains peerless in defensive midfield and buzzing Brazil forward Willian is one of the continent’s form players at present.
Yet, the Premier League holders head back to west London nursing open wounds from a ruthless 3-0 defeat.
Each moment of weakness was met with clinical punishment in a match that acts as an exemplar of the uniquely exacting psychological and footballing test which must be passed for anyone to better this Barca.
A gauntlet has been thrown down to all continental comers. From La Masia’s own Pep Guardiola at Manchester City to the behemoths from Bayern Munich, without forgetting eternal Clasico rivals and two-time-successive winners Real Madrid – plus the rest.
If Chelsea can be this good but go down in flames, can you even fathom the performance required to deny Barca a sixth coronation as European kings?
How can any mere mortal hope to deny the indescribably brilliance of Lionel Messi.
An icon who continues to conjure landmark moments, scoring the quickest goal of his career after two minutes and six seconds and then came his 100th strike from 123 sittings at Europe’s top table. Both were slotted through Belgium No.1 Thibaut Courtois’ legs.
11 - Barcelona have reached the quarter-finals for the 11th consecutive season, the longest run in the history of the Champions League. Infallible. pic.twitter.com/8sNKNJa1B8
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 14, 2018
And that is even without mentioning the divine assist for France flyer Ousmane Dembele that wasn’t imagined by any of the near 100,000 fans packed into Camp Nou, or the countless millions watching across the globe on television.
To centre on the Argentine alone is to ignore strike partner Luis Suarez’s delightful set-up for his early opener, as well as Samuel Umtiti’s growing influence at centre-back. Never mind Croatia centre midfielder Ivan Rakitic’s enervating accuracy in midfield.
Faced with this overwhelming weight of talent, the simply ‘very good’ wilt.
Barca clinically preyed on each show of weakness. Distinct culpabilities from the men in blue define all four goals conceded by them during two engrossing legs of elite Europe club competition.
Performers that boast the standing of Andreas Christensen, Courtois, Cesc Fabregas and Cesar Azpilicueta all blinked. Barca then cashed in.
Ernesto Valverde’s Blaugrana offer a different challenge to the dizzying “carousel” bemoaned by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson at the turn of this decade.
Ousmane Dembele (l) and Lionel Messi cheer Barcelona’s second goal.
On the night, Chelsea had six more attempts than their hosts and made only 116 less passes. In the Frank Rijkaard and Guardiola eras, these statistics would produce both internal and existential crises.
The once-sacrosanct 4-3-3 formation from the school of Johan Cruyff has given way to a thoughtfully deployed 4-4-2.
Efficiency marks out the class of 2017/18. They expose individual errors and then conclusively punish them with individual brilliance like few others in the annals of the world’s game.
Rewards for Barca at this stage include an iron grip on La Liga’s title race and now this result.
Further glories at home and abroad look sure to come.
