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Barcelona beat Juventus 3-0 at the Camp Nou in their first Champions League encounter of the season thanks to an awe-inspiring performance from Lionel Messi. The result may not erase their memories of the 2016/17 quarter-final exit yet, but it's definitely a start.
A brace from Messi and a goal from Ivan Rakitic saw the Catalan club move to the top of Group D thanks to a comfortable victory at home. Here are the major talking points from the game.
1) Lionel Messi was unstoppable
Although Cristiano Ronaldo was the first to reach a century of goals in Europe, it's safe to say that Lionel Messi will be next as he slowly reels him in. The Argentine forward was deployed as a false nine and the system worked to bring the best out in him.
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However, he did take his time to make an impact. Juventus had a decent 40 minutes in the first half and kept Barcelona at bay. Messi had not yet made a single touch in the Juve box until the stroke of half-time.
In the final minute of the half, Messi drove forward just as Juventus switched off and played a neat one-two with Luis Suarez to enter the box with the ball for the first time. As five defenders closed in, he took his shot early and scored past a stranded Gianluigi Buffon.
11 minutes into the second half, he was on hand to give the Juve defence nightmares again - this time on the flank. Cutting into the box, he drew four defenders before squaring the ball, allowing Ivan Rakitic to score unchallenged.
The third goal was again all Messi as he received the ball on the counter-attack, quickly sidestepped two challenges before firing a shot across a helpless Buffon to find the back of the net.
Seven goals in his last three games. Untouchable. Unstoppable. Unplayable..
2) Juventus' defence was appalling
Without the services of the injured Giorgio Chiellini, it was up to Andrea Barzagli and Gianluigi Buffon to marshal the back-line at the Camp Nou. And Massimiliano Allegri decided to go with a back-four instead of the traditional back-three (a formation he is yet to use this season).
They had Mattia De Sciglio at right-back, Alex Sandro at left-back and Medhi Benatia to partner Barzagli at centre-back. De Sciglio did not even last the half as he came off injured with Stefano Sturaro replacing him and that was when the dam broke.
Sandro has been poor for Juve for quite some time now and it doesn't look like he has prepared well in pre-season for this campaign. Barzagli and Benatia are not the ideal pairing at the back and looked two or three steps behind Barcelona, especially in the second half.
But formations and tactics aside, they simply switched off in the second half. Rakitic's goal showed how disorganised they were at the back, leaving Buffon very vulnerable to clear shots on goal.
Two defenders had tracked Messi while a third marked Suarez. However, two more in the box were guilty of ball-watching allowing Rakitic all the time in the world to pounce on the rebound from Messi's cross.
3) Possession football and pressing are back at Barcelona
If Luis Enrique's sides played a brand of football that was a lot more direct, Ernesto Valverde has drilled the concepts of possession and high-intensity pressing back into the Barcelona players' heads.
The Camp Nou pitch's width aids teams who need space and Barcelona did their best to starve Juve of any space whatsoever in midfield. Although they played a 4-3-3, they did switch to a 3-4-3 to hold the numerical advantage in midfield.
Sergio Busquets dropped back while centre-backs Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti moved out wide, allowing both full-backs Jordi Alba and Nelson Semedo to advance up field.
With Messi also dropping deep to gain possession and help move the ball along, Juve's midfield trio of Blaise Matuidi, Miralem Pjanic and Paulo Dybala were dispossessed a number of times while failing to get the ball forward to Gonzalo Higuain, Douglas Costa and Rodrigo Bentancur.
Barcelona's players were nipping at their heels as soon as they lost the ball and won it back quite easily. By half-time, Semedo had made more tackles than the entire Juventus team combined.
Andres Iniesta's constant movement across the pitch also flummoxed Juventus and the veteran even managed to complete 4 dribbles - one less than the match-high of 5 (Messi and Costa).
4) Juventus' attack goes missing
While the scoreline may point to a battering at the hands of Barcelona, the truth is Juventus had their chances - especially in the first half. In fact, it was the Italian side that fashioned a few shots on goal before capitulating to a Messi masterclass.
Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was kept quite busy between the sticks but he was only really tested a couple of times from range. Juventus opted to play on the counter-attack in the first half as Barcelona camped in their half with their centre-backs Pique and Umtiti playing a high line in and around the centre-circle.
However, what Juve failed to capitalise on was the open spaces behind Semedo and Alba who had pushed up field. Costa and Bentancur had made a couple of good runs but Juve's midfield had failed to spot the runs, allowing the Barcelona full-backs to quickly recover and drop back.
Up front, both Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala failed to click together - much unlike Messi and Suarez who kept finding each other with relative ease.
5) Luis Suarez struggles, Ousmane Dembele has work to do
With Neymar out of the picture, the focus is back solely on Messi to get Barcelona going. He has been moved to the centre, allowing him to make a bigger impact and get his sights on goal a lot quicker.
But this has shifted Luis Suarez to the left and he seems to be struggling to get among the goals now. On the odd occasion he tried to use pace, he was easily beaten while his passing and first touch seemed to suffer in this game.
Save for the quick shot on goal that produced a fine save from Buffon and the assist for Messi's first goal, Suarez cut a frustrated figure for Barcelona. It was also topped off by a well-constructed goal that was ruled out for offside during the build-up.
On the other flank, Ousmane Dembele did well to run at the defence and get into dangerous positions. But his decision-making is still not up to the mark and he lost the ball in the final third more times than Valverde would have liked.
It's still early days for the youngster and the €105m price tag may be weighing him down. What he needs is a consistent run of games and the manager to inspire some confidence in the 20-year-old to mesh with his teammates and make the right pass.
