IT WAS 2009 before Barcelona were finally able to say they had won more European Cups than Nottingham Forest.
For all its artistry, and rhetoric, Catalonia had not been a regular destination for club football’s grandest prize before the victory over Manchester United in Rome pushed them one ahead of Brian Clough.
The problem with sporting the first three home in the race for Fifa’s Ballon d’Or is that it renders Champions League domination more or less obligatory. Still hanging over this Barcelona side is the memory of their inability to break down Internazionale’s defensive block in last year’s semi-finals: a rare setback for the coach Pep Guardiola’s master plan.
Technically Barcelona are not the best side in Europe, never mind “the world”, as president Sandro Rossell bragged recently. The continental title belongs to Inter until Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi – Fifa’s 1-2-3 – can take it back off them.
Thus a second-round first leg with the English xerox known as Arsenal was freighted with extra tension for the side dressed in operating-theatre green. The last song they would want to hear in May is Elvis Costello's All This Useless Beauty.
Barca had never lost to Arsenal in Champions League action but they feared the enterprise and thrust of Arsene Wenger’s men. The Gunners, said Guardiola, were a team for watching, not playing against. He was not patronising the Premier League’s second-best team. For 15 minutes Arsenal tore at Barcelona with zestful runs from midfield. Jack Wilshere, to the manor born, drove on from deep midfield and Theo Walcott was a constant menace along Barcelona’s left.
Arsenal had found a way to cut through the gaps in Barca’s revolving midfield.
But then the picture changed. Applying a basic Camp Nou tenet, Spain’s champions slowed the pace, passing in tight triangles to recover their rhythm and poise, then unleashed their lethal moves around the Arsenal penalty box.
First Messi combined with David Villa to put himself in an ideal chipping position on the right edge of Wojciech Szczesny’s six-yard box. To his own bafflement Messi scooped the ball past the right-hand post.
His exasperation spoke of an inability to believe the orb had disobeyed him. After 43 goals in 39 games for club and country this season alone, Messi shoots with a sense of destiny.
From the side who drew 2-2 here 11 months ago, Eric Abidal replaced the injured Carles Puyol, Iniesta reclaimed his place from Seydou Keita and Zlatan Ibrahimovic had been shipped out in favour of David Villa.
In other words, this was a stronger Barca starting XI. Before Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Sporting Gijon they had won all 10 away games in La Liga: a club record.
But they had yet to win an away game in Champions League knock-out action under Guardiola: a bizarre anomaly which they set about correcting with Villa’s first-half goal, from a soft, shovelled pass by Messi.
But this was no beauty parade for the tournament’s hot favourites. To preserve their lead to the hour mark they needed to draw on their most competitive instincts.
It was a night of industry, of toil. After the interval Arsenal were too eager and ambitious to allow Barcelona to apply their usual scintillating rhythms and so Guardiola’s men were forced into a more frantic contest.
Messi, the destroyer of all worlds, endured one of those nights when the faintest imprecisions spoil a beautiful thought. After the interval he clipped one into the side-netting.
Not for the first time, he dipped his head and cursed in frustration.
Guardiola was in the Barcelona side who won the European Cup at the old Wembley in 1992. To be at the new one for this year’s final, 19 seasons on, they will have to shift an Arsenal who were never daunted, never Barcelona-lite.
Guardian Service
