A home European game that ends without a shot on target all night is not something taken from the great Manchester United playbook of yesteryear but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his toiling players will head to Spain next week still in touch with their gilded opponents and for that they may well be thankful.
It will take another remarkable effort to pull this tie round. Barcelona will surely be a different proposition in the Nou Camp than the occasional clunky and careless team that started this game imperiously only to slide slowly in to neutral gear at a relieved and grateful Old Trafford.
Neverheless United remain in the tie and at least have memories of dramatic wins at Juventus and PSG this season to sustain them as they plot a miracle almost as notable as the one they pulled off in the Nou Camp in the Champions League final of 1999.
Luis Suarez wheels away in celebration after his header was turned in by Luke Shaw (not pictured) to give Barcelona the lead
The Uruguayan striker managed to get on to the end of a Lionel Messi cross to head the ball back across the face of goal
Suarez’s header then brushed off Shaw and into the United net giving the visitors an early lead at Old Trafford
The goal was originally ruled out as the linesman believes Suarez (left) was standing in an offside position at the back post
However, after a check from VAR, referee Gianluca Rocchi correctly overturned the decision to award the goal to Barcelona
Suarez (right) then celebrates with Messi as the Catalan giants get a crucial away goal from home in the quarter-finals
MATCH FACTS, PLAYER RATINGS AND MATCH ZONE
MANCHESTER UNITED: (4-3-3) De Gea 7; Young 5, Smalling 6.5, Lindelof 6, Shaw 6; Fred 6, McTominay 7.5, Pogba 6; Dalot 7 (Lingard 74), Lukaku 6 (Martial 68), Rashford 6.5 (Pereira 85)
SUBS NOT USED: Romero (GK); Jones, Mata, Rojo
GOALS: None
BOOKINGS: Shaw (19), Lingard (76), Smalling (86)
COACH: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 6
BARCELONA: (4-3-3) Ter Stegen 6.5; Semedo 7, Pique 7, Lenglet 5.5, Jordi Alba 6.5; Arthur 5.5 (Roberto 66), Busquets 5.5 (Alena 90+3), Rakitic 6; Messi 6, Suarez 7, Coutinho 6 (Vidal 65)
SUBS NOT USED: Cillessen (GK); Dembele, Malcom, Umtiti
GOALS: Shaw (OG 12)
BOOKINGS: Busquets (17), Vidal (71)
COACH: Ernesto Valverde 6
REFEREE: Gianluca Rocchi (Italy) 7
MAN OF THE MATCH: Scott McTominay
VENUE: Old Trafford
ATTENDANCE: 75,000
*Ratings done by Chris Wheeler
For more of Sportsmail’s fantastic MATCH ZONE feature, please click here.
Luis Suarez (No 9, left) heads the ball across goal which Luke Shaw (No 23) inadvertenly turns into his own net during the first half.
Lionel Messi’s heatmap shows that he sat deeper in midfield and worked as a playmaker, rarely featuring in United’s area
Everything didn’t look exactly lost when Luke Shaw deflected Luis Suarez’s header in to the goal in the 12th minute but United were certainly unable to locate possession, territory or purpose at that time. With more than an hour still to play and Barcelona playing keep ball. Solskjaer’s team faced the longest and sternest of examinations.
But as Barcelona slowly lost their rhythm and United discovered a little bravery, this was a game that felt a little more even for a time. United will have to be better and they will have to be lucky next Tuesday night but they do at least know that they have been both when the situation as required it in Europe this season.
A fair indication of how the opening half hour went was that United’s centre forward Romelu Lukaku touched the ball twice in that period. As someone pointed, the United ball boys were more involved than the big striker.
Not that it was Lukaku’s fault. United, as they have been on occasion before, found themselves caught in the backdraft of Barcelona’s rhythmical passing football and it was all they could to stay upright and resist.
This Barcelona side is not quite what it once was but the principles remain the same and it was on the back of long periods of possession that the Spanish side wore United down in a first half that they dominated from the outset.
Messi was left with a cut on the bridge of his nose and his eyelid during the first half at Old Trafford
The 31-year-old is left hunched over in the centre of the pitch while team-mates surround him to make sure he is alright
As part of head-injury protocol, Messi is then checked for concussion at the side of the pitch by Barcelona’s medical team
In fact the best thing about the opening period from United’s point of view was they ended it only a goal down. When Suarez scored so simply yet so exquisitely in the 12th minute it felt as United’s race may be run already.
But on the back of some Barcelona wastefulness and some rather more assertive football of their own, they reached the interval still in the tie.
Solskjaer’s team selection was not particularly brave. The United manager packed his team with work horses and left the coltish attacking talents of Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial on the bench. Solskjaer would probably argue that to be overly brave against Barcelona is actually to be foolish and he may well have a point.
So United began with a defensive line of four that soon became five and more when Barcelona had the ball. From that point of view, they invited pressure and it duly arrived in wave after yellow wave as Barcelona pushed the home team so far back in to their own half that they were almost on the verge of asking for seats in the Stretford End.
When the opening goal came, it did so on the back of unbroken pressure and was created and executed with simple precision. A long pass forwards from Sergio Busquets was controlled in the penalty area by Lionel Messi and when he chipped the ball across goal Suarez arrived to head in unmarked at the far post.
Nelson Semedo (left) tries to get the ball off United defender Diogo Dalot (right) but the Portuguese man manages to get away
Paul Pogba (right) brings the ball under control using his chest as Sergio Busquets puts the Frenchman under pressure
Chris Smalling (right) tussles with Suarez as the two battle for possession during a fiercely-contested tie in Manchester
Sergio Busquets (left, on the floor) mistimes a challenge and brings down Scott McTominay (right) in a dangerous area
After a brief pause, the linesman’s flag went up on the far side and it seemed that United were to be reprieved. But replays showed no offence and certainly no offside and the goal was quite rightly awarded through the VAR process.
For a while United toiled. Men against boys. Champions League against Championship, or so it looked.
United’s attacks relied largely on set pieces and release balls out to the pacey Marcus Rashford. A couple of free-kicks came to nothing while Ashley Young shanked a volley hopelessly wide.
Barcelona, though, were so comfortable at times to be almost careless and on the back of this – and indeed a shift in their own mental attitude – United eased themselves in to the contest.
Barcelona still created the next best chance of the game as Suarez laid a ball off on the top of the penalty area to Philippe Coutinho. The former Liverpool player drove low and hard towards goal and David de Gea saved smartly with his left foot.
Nevertheless, there was belated progress for United late in the half. Slowly they began to work the ball in to wide areas and managed to disrupt the flow of Barcelona’s midfield play with some more urgent pressing of the ball higher up the field.
Young midfielder Scott McTominay appealed for a penalty after going down under a Gerard Pique challenge. He may have had a case had he not made such a dreadful meal of it.
And then, at last, a real United chance. Rashford slung in a super cross to the back post in the 40th minute and Diogo Dalot waited unmarked. He really should have scored but instead headed the ball back across goal and a golden opportunity had gone.
Marcus Rashford (left) has a shot at goal from the resulting free kick but it whistles just past Andre ter Stegen’s post
Chris Smalling (centre) tries to stop Suarez (right) from getting past during the opening stages at Old Trafford
Ashley Young (back) brings down Philippe Coutinho as the Brazilian winces from the tackle from behind on Wednesday
Crucially, though, the 10-minute spell before the break had given United some momentum and they allowed that to propel them in to the second half.
Again, Barcelona veered towards unusual carelessness on the ball and as United enjoyed time in the opposition’s half, so the atmosphere here lifted.
Strangely the hour mark arrived with there having been one shot on target all night. Suarez’s header had been shown to have been deflected in by Shaw by this stage.
It was still a compelling contest, though, and by now United were very much it, Rashford sending a volley wide after Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen had pawed a cross in to his path.
Deliveries from wide looked to be the way forward for United. Barcelona, meanwhile, continued to seek spaces further infield and Suarez wasted a great chance in the 65th minute, slashing a wild shot in to the side netting after being played in nicely by Nelson Semedo. Almost immediately De Gea saved at his near post from Jordi Alba as Barcelona showed signs of reasserting themselves.