In a Champions League group fraught with potential danger, Barcelona made the start they needed by securing three points with a 4-0 victory over Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven.
Lionel Messi was the hero with a beautifully-taken hat-trick and Ousmane Dembele added a superb solo effort, but not everything on the night was positive for the Catalan club.
Here are three big talking points to arise from the Camp Nou contest.
MESSI SPARKS BARCA… AGAIN
For a man who usually lets his feet do the talking, it was highly surprising on the dawn on the new campaign when Lionel Messi used his traditional pre-season captain’s speech to fans as an opportunity to publicly underline the team’s determination to wrestle the Champions League trophy away from Real Madrid.
Barca have been hugely frustrated to suffer three consecutive quarter-final eliminations, while their old enemies from the Spanish capital have lorded it with a trio of triumphs. A series of emotive statements by senior players have made it clear just how much the dressing room suffered from their most recent exit, an embarrassing second-leg capitulation against Roma in April.
Messi’s open declaration that Barca are first and foremost focussed on their European challenge has piled on the pressure for them to deliver, but if there’s one player in the world who is capable of meeting that kind of expectation it’s the Argentine ace – and he was true to his word by sparking this victory with a brilliant free-kick.
He was by no means finished, putting the seal on the result in the latter stages with two perfectly taken goals for his hat-trick, and the message is simple: watch out Europe, Messi means business.
Lionel Messi of Barcelona scores his team’s third goal.
DEMBELE CONTINUES TO GROW
Heading into the final 15 minutes, the outcome was still in the balance.
But then came a moment of magic to even surpass anything delivered by Messi as Ousmane Dembele scored a brilliant second goal.
Receiving the ball in midfield with his back to goal, the France winger made a sharp 180- degree turn to leave two PSV defenders for dead, and then slalomed towards goal before curling an exquisite 20-yard right-footed shot perfectly inside the far post.
It was a special moment and, added to the mazy dribble he made to win the free-kick for Messi’s opener, served to underline the growing feeling that Dembele is overcoming a slow start to his Camp Nou-career and becoming a real force to be reckoned with.
There were, however, also plenty of frustrating moments from Dembele, who epitomises the phrase ‘hit or miss’ with his unpredictable skills just as likely to needlessly squander possession as create a chance out of nothing.
But he’s the kind of player who demands that you just have to take the rough with the smooth and, as long as he continues reach his current standards of productivity, his more than occasional lapses can be forgiven.
Barcelona’s France forward Ousmane Dembele scores.
UMTITI SPOILS THE PARTY
The big negative to arise from the evening for Barca was a totally avoidable red card for centre-back Samuel Umtiti.
The World Cup 2018 winner first talked his way into the book with a petulant show of dissent following a foul on the halfway line, before making an even more senseless intervention by crudely blocking the run of Hirving Lozano just after his team had moved 3-0 ahead.
Umtiti knew his fate immediately and didn’t even wait for referee Tasos Sidiropoulos to show the red card before heading off the pitch.
He will now be banned for the next Champions League game, a testing trip to Tottenham Hotspur in a couple of weeks.
And with the English club desperate for a positive outcome following their opening night defeat against Inter Milan, the absence of Umtiti will demand a big performance from likely replacement Clement Lenglet.
Barca will just have to hope the moments of madness from Umtiti don’t prove too costly – and that he learns from his mistakes.
Samuel Umtiti gets his marching orders.
