Barcelona's beautiful game left in tatters

With their Champions League hopes shattered, Manchester United stepped away from Wembley last May fearing that Barcelona's long shadow would fall across them in Europe for a generation unless they could find some way to retaliate.

In the hours after that scintillating triumph by Lionel Messi and his gang, United began thinking about how their club could evolve to meet the new standard set by Catalonia. Suddenly Europe seemed boxed off by the unanswerable brilliance of a side who refused to share the ball 70 per cent of the time. All the elite clubs would need to respond with academy overhauls, more passing out from the back and a rigid intolerance of ever giving the ball away.

In those dark days United could never have guessed that Barcelona's cycle had less than 12 months to run - or that an alliance of olde Chelsea forces would bring its end. In the space of seven tumultuous days the European champions were expelled by 10-man Chelsea and pulled off their plinth in La Liga by Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid.

Throughout those three games a feeling grew in the bones that Barcelona were not the side who bewitched United in London in May 2011. That second Champions League triumph inside three years may now be remembered as the zenith for the magic trio of Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta, who were all part of the starting XI who failed to beat the sixth best team in England, even after Chelsea had been reduced to 10 by John Terry's first-half dismissal.

"It's a painful way to go out because we were superior," Cesc Fabregas declared yesterday (Wednesday). "The result in Stamford Bridge [a 1-0 Chelsea win] is what did us in. We played a great game, we dominated and we created a lot of chances. We didn't sacrifice our style. It's painful to be eliminated this way, seeing that we had a lot of chances to score. It's a very hard blow. We have to hold our heads high. Next year we'll have the chance to do important things."

But will they? Pep Guardiola, who was amassed 13 trophies in his four years in charge, was reported to be having lunch with the club president, Sandro Rosell, as Barcelona attempted to correct the sense of drift surrounding the manager's intentions. The defeat in London could be ascribed to poor finishing and resolute Chelsea defending but Real Madrid's 2-1 win at the Nou Camp on Saturday night left a different odour.

The first was of strife between Guardiola and Gerard Pique, football's most elegant defender. Also evident was lethargy, listlessness and dissatisfaction with the side Guardiola had picked, minus Pique, Pedro, Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez, and with the callow Tello pinned out on the left. The coach's excessive faith in raw academy graduates was in evidence again on Tuesday night when Guardiola picked Isaac Cuenca on the right. An assist for Sergio Busquet's goal could not hide Cuenca's unsuitability for such an intense and demanding test.

More broadly the kaleidoscopic passing (or ball circulation) that has induced giddiness in so many opponents was not as quick, decisive, subtle or penetrative as it was when mass defending merely delayed the moment of execution. Real Madrid and Chelsea both refused to play the victim role and exhausted themselves closing off all avenues while weighing up the right moment to counter-attack, as Mourinho's Inter Milan had two years previously.

So all the clubs to have stamped on Barcelona's fun on the biggest occasions bear a Mourinho boot print. But last year's Barca would not have succumbed the way they did over seven spring days this year. The opposition would have succumbed eventually to the majesty coming at them in waves. On Tuesday, as on Saturday night, a conviction-deficit was noticeable in Barca's forward play while defenders failed to cope with robust counter-strikes from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo (the world's best counter-puncher), Didier Drogba, Ramires and finally Fernando Torres, with his late salvation cameo.

Garlands and bouquets have piled at Barcelona's feet but the extreme ball-rotating style offers few alternatives when the other team refuse to yield. The Zlatan Ibrahimovic centre-forward experiment ended unhappily and David Villa's leg-break has deprived them of an alternative to tiki-taka.

Leaving Daniel Alves and Pedro on the bench for the 2-2 draw with Chelsea opened Guardiola to the accusation of confusion about which is his best XI.

"We have a particular way of playing, which is why the opposition can adapt to the way we play," he said, acknowledging a tactical truth hammered home by Chelsea and Real. "From opening day I've transmitted this crazy theme of 'You have to go out and attack, attack, attack', and there are moments when we don't know when to pause. Maybe it's a lesson to learn for the future. We have to find the way to attack better."

In Spain, La Vanguardia ran the headline "Funeral at the Camp Nou" while El Mundo Deportivo called the outcome "unjust". But while Barcelona parade their stunning possession stats - Xavi passed more than the entire Chelsea team - other members of the elite have found ways to beat them without the ball, however unsightly those victories look. Some calculated Barcelona's share of the ball on Tuesday at more than 80 per cent.

They have scored 170 goals in all competitions this season and have continued to light up football's landscape, encouraging others to embrace creativity and ingenuity. Sir Bobby Charlton has said "all teams should try to play like Barcelona". Yet their only remaining target now is the Copa del Rey, or Spanish FA Cup, which they contest next month with Athletic Bilbao.

There was unfamiliar trepidation around the ground before Tuesday's second leg and an unexpected sense of resignation after Chelsea had gone through. The club anthem was sung more in sadness or sympathy than anger.

The people of this ferociously independent nation-within-a-state know already the pomp has passed. But the club still have their glorious idea, which will blossom again.