There was a moment in the first half here, midway through a period of dreamy high-speed Barcelona possession, when Manchester City might have considered briefly stepping across the hoardings and taking a seat in the front row of the crowd. Picking up the ball inside his own half, Lionel Messi first shouldered Gaël Clichy out of the way, then put his head down and simply sprinted off, boots pounding the turf like a boxer hitting the speed-ball, drawing an involuntary gurgle of pleasure from the home crowd as one of City’s renowned flyers was left looking like a man running up the down escalator.
By that stage Barcelona were 2-0 up and making a rare kind of neon-shirted music in Manchester. This though was something else. We knew they could pass and move and hide the ball. When they can barge you off the ball and then outsprint your quickest man there really is nowhere left to hide.
As it turned out City’s supporters had the last laugh here, the match ending with Messi sprawled on the turf after having a last-second penalty saved, and then producing a horrible muffed diving header as the ball rebounded off Joe Hart. A goal then would have killed completely a tie that is instead simply in critical condition after a 2-1 Barcelona victory that was defibrillated by a spell of bold football from City in a second half that saw Sergio Agüero pull back a goal before Clichy’s sending off for a second yellow card.
The dominant memory though will be that first-half spell during which the champions of England weren’t just outplayed but presented with a team playing an entirely different kind of game altogether, and Luis Suárez capped his return to England with two fine goals to give substance to a periodically stunning team performance
Ah yes, Suárez. It always seemed likely the Premier league’s reigning player of the year would enjoy a significant return. This will have been a hugely satisfying match for the Uruguayan, and not just because of the goals. At Barça his scoring rate has dipped, with the idea that he only destroys the weaker teams – the Hammer of Norwich – trotted out once again. But he has been playing a slightly different role, and doing so with some craft.
For all the creaks here and there this Barcelona team has one outstanding point of strength. In Messi, Neymar and Suárez Luis Enrique has at his disposal the most powerful attack in world football, a hoard of creative goalscorers that is a match for anything from the Pep Guardiola years.
There was a fascination just watching Barcelona’s attacking trident emerge before kick-off. Here they come, a three-man footballing supergroup, Suárez, Neymar and Messi: Scary Spice, Baby Spice and Jaw-droppingly Brilliant Spice. It is a good mix in many ways. Neymar offers wonderfully lithe movement and soft-touch finishing. Suárez brings a more spontaneous, more physically relentlessly presence, while Messi remains the through-the-roof genius, an army of one who on this form, and with that vital little burst of speed restored, could fit into any team in any shape and define the game around him.
At the Etihad Luis Enrique continued with Suárez at the heart of his attacking three, providing a workaholic central presence around which Messi and Neymar rotate. And here he was, perhaps for the first time in a Barça shirt, the perfect cutting edge in a first half that saw Barcelona kick off in their extreme hi-vis green and promptly put together 20 or so passes, an early clearing of the throat.
With 11 minutes gone there was first glimpse of Neymar’s supremely inventive range of movement, a flick and shimmy taking him past Pablo Zabaleta inside the box like a man very tactfully evading a drunken late night pedestrian. And the opening goal came four minutes later with Barcelona no more than dominant, a level below the blur of their best moments.
It was a goal from Premier League-era Suárez, a player born to thrive when the game is broken, able to react more decisively to a sliver of space or a break of the ball. Messi’s cross from the right brought a flick header from Suárez, the ball bounced down off Kompany and before anyone could move Suárez swivelled and smacked it low into the corner.
After which, for the next half hour or so, Messi threatened to play City off the park, down the tunnel and off down Ashton New Road all on his own. First there was a moment of collective awe as he cut inside, appeared briefly to pause time around him, and picked out through the crowd an almost offensively perfect cross-field pass. There were surges, flicked passes, and one nutmeg on David Silva in his own half. Plus, finally, the sublime jink across the penalty area that brought Suárez’s second goal on 30 minutes, sealed by a superbly-timed run the other way from Suárez to take a low cross from Jordi Alba and slide the ball home.
City were handicapped here by playing for an hour with an unnecessary second striker, allowing Sergio Busquets the freedom to pick a pass every time. But to their credit Manuel Pellegrini’s team gathered their strength in the second half and began to find the weaknesses beyond that sublime front trio. It is no secret that Barcelona can be got at but you have to catch them first and on their evidence few will fancy their chances.