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We all know about Barcelona’s Tiki-taka, an ability to keep the ball and pass the opposition into submission, and it was all on show in a breathtaking Champions League final.
But yesterday morning Pep Guardiola’s side brought something a little different to the table, and it was a tactic which helped give them the comfortable victory their performance deserved.
What we normally associate with this Barca side is the remarkable ability to move and keep the ball, either through a rapid dribble, a neat combination of one and two touches or a patient build-up which burst into life through a second or third man run, and a precise defence-splitting ball.
Often it results in a player getting in behind the opponent’s defence, where a short square pass inevitably results in a tap-in.
We also know about their incredible ability to win the ball early and high, always maintaining pressure, with or without the ball.
What we rarely associate with the Catalans is a succession of long-distance strikes.
It is a tactic more often associated with the English game, where it’s used to try and break down packed, deep-sitting defences.
But yesterday, and particularly in the second period, we saw Barcelona unleash a bevy of long distance shots, resulting in both second half goals, superbly struck by Messi and Villa.
Even before Messi’s left footed out-swinger on 54 minutes, came a couple of strikes from outside the box from Iniesta and Xavi.
With Manchester United dropping deeper and deeper in the wake of Barca’s domination of the ball, Guardiola’s men began to find their avenues of getting in-behind blocked.
Soon enough they were dropping balls square, to the edge of the box, a strategy designed in part to force the retreating defence to step-out, thus creating more space, but also to take advantage of the space afforded them in front of Vidic and Ferdinand.
With Giggs, Carrick and Park shuffling one way, then the other, powerless to block the space on the vast Wembley pitch, the invitation was there every time.
It soon became a shooting gallery, with Xavi forcing Van der Sar to save to his right, before Iniesta struck one beautifully, but straight at the Dutchman.
A short time later, after Messi had burnt Nani down the right flank, only to run into a bevy of white shirts, the ball was laid out to the edge of the box by Busquets, where Villa shaped a peach into the top corner.
It highlighted everything that was so perfect about this Barca performance in the Champions League final, and proved what a shrewd bunch of thinkers this club has nurtured.
Always calculating, forever probing, they were able to find the answers. If it wasn’t quite working in behind, they were able to lay it out and produce something special from deep.
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