Lamine Yamal went out of his way to hype up his return to the Barcelona line-up for Wednesday night's Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys. The 18-year-old posted a clip on his Instagram account from the movie 'The Devil's Advocate' in which Al Pacino's character, John Milton, discusses the effects of pressure: "Some people, you squeeze 'em, they focus; others fold. Can you summon your talent at will? Can you deliver on a deadline? Can you sleep at night?"
Yamal then posted a picture of himself from Spain's Euro 2024 triumph, accompanied by the words: "Pressure? I'm back and the mission is back too." The mission in question was Barcelona's bid to prove themselves the best team in Europe – which Yamal's team-mate Pedri insisted they already were on the eve of the game against PSG.
Admittedly, there's nothing wrong with self-belief; on the contrary, it's absolutely essential at the highest level of sport. But there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and the problem with big talk is that it can make you look ridiculous if you don't back it up. Wednesday night was a perfect case in point.
Getty Images SportBarca's blistering start
One can certainly understand why Barca were in high spirits ahead of the visit of PSG.
After beating Real Madrid four times during last season's domestic treble triumph, they'd made an undefeated start to their Liga title defence, taking 19 points from a possible 21 to sit top of the table after seven rounds of action, while at the same time kicking off their Champions League campaign with an impressive 2-1 win over Newcastle at a raucous St. James' Park.
They'd also achieved all of this despite being shorn of the services of Yamal, their most wondrous attacking talent, for four matches in all competitions, so even accounting for the ongoing absences of Raphinha and goalkeeper Joan Garcia, Barca were in good condition going into the midweek match at Montjuic – unlike their opponents.
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport'A great statement' from a depleted PSG
We knew well in advance that PSG would be without their captain (Marquinhos) and entire first-choice forward line (Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue) for the game in Catalonia. However, they also had to make do without key midfielder Joao Neves, who pulled out during the warm-up.
The net result was PSG taking to the field without six members of the starting line-up that destroyed Inter in last season's Champions League final: one by choice (Gigi Donnarumma) but five others through injury.
Consequently, the feeling before kick-off was that Luis Enrique's side was there for the taking; that Barcelona had a glorious opportunity to make a serious statement of intent just two rounds into the new Champions League season. As Vitinha pointed out, though, it was PSG who sent a message to all of the pretenders to their throne.
"It happens sometimes," the Portuguese mused after his team came from behind to win 2-1 at Montjuic. "There are often statements made before matches, it can happen. But we don't give a damn. We don't care, we just want to play the match and we won, so we're happy about that.
"I'm proud of this team because it's happened several times before that we've turned a game around. But you had five players who normally start who aren't here, so you have some kids who play or come on and do very well. Then, other players who play less often came on and gave a great response.
"We were behind against one of the best teams in Europe away from home, and even then, you manage to come through in the second half and turn the game around. It's a great statement from our team."
For Barca, though, it was a dressing down.
Getty Images SportBarca unable to build on strong start
The Blaugrana are a scintillating sight in full flight. In fact, they're arguably an even more exciting side to watch than PSG because Hansi Flick's high-risk approach makes goals a guarantee.
It, thus, didn't come as a surprise to see them score for a club-record 45th game in a row, on Wednesday evening. They began the game brightly, too, and Yamal really did look like a man on a mission.
Just three minutes into the game, he danced past three PSG players wide on the right flank, while he was also involved in the lead-up to the game's opening goal, which came courtesy of Ferran Torres, who tucked away a lovely first-time pass from Marcus Rashford 19 minutes in.
Barca didn't build on their strong start, though – or perhaps more accurately, they weren't allowed to, because the longer the half wore on, the stronger and indeed bolder PSG became.
As Flick conceded afterwards, despite the best efforts of Pedri and Frenkie de Jong, Vitinha & Co. took control of the contest from around the half-hour mark, and would never relinquish it.
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Getty Images SportMendes gets the better of Yamal again
Nuno Mendes winning his individual battle with Yamal was also key to PSG becoming the first team to win three consecutive games away to Barcelona.
Just as he had during Portugal's Nations League win over Spain during the summer, the left-back frustrated the life out of the Ballon d'Or runner-up – so much so, in fact, that Yamal even tried to get the referee to give Mendes a second yellow card just after the hour mark, even though it was Fabian Ruiz who had felled the winger.
It was a classless show of weakness and reflective of the fact that Nuno was having a far bigger influence on the game – even from an offensive perspective.
Whereas Yamal failed to register either a goal or assist, Mendes created PSG's crucial equaliser just before the break with a stunning surge up the left wing and beautifully-weighted pass into the feet of goal-scorer Senny Mayulu.