Pep Guardiola’s reckless approach plays into Luis Enrique’s grateful hands

For long periods during the build-up to this game, it appeared as though a Champions League semi-final was about to take place with only one manager present.

Images, words and thoughts were focused on Pep Guardiola as Barcelona royalty returned home, albeit wearing a different tracksuit, with different players and speaking a different language.

The game itself, though, provided a reminder of Guardiola’s fallibility and diverted at least some of the attention towards his latest successor at the Camp Nou. But if Luis Enrique is to give his time in charge at Barca a more permanent feel, his must ensure his side build on the sublime brilliance of Lionel Messi and negotiate a return leg in Germany that is now firmly tilted in their favour.

This, though, was an outstanding staging post on that journey.

There seemed to no bitterness or rancour associated with Guardiola’s return.

His contribution to the Catalan club, however you choose to measure it, is immense. If anyone earned the right to leave even a club a significant as Barcelona on his own terms, it was Pep.

And now he was back in charge of Bayern Munich side attempting to establish its own era of dominance to rival that of his Barca side.

Standing in the way of Guardiola’s ambitions were a group of players, most of them well known to him, some of them not. And an opposition manager; the overlooked and, so far, under-valued Enrique, the third man entrusted with extending the legacy of the golden era enjoyed by the Catalans under the leadership of their favourite son.

The efforts of the late Tito Vilanova’s to step up from the position of Pep’s number two was tragically cut short when the manager fell ill with cancer. Gerardo Martino then failed to impress last year, prompting the club’s hierarchy to turn to once again to a former player and bring Enrique back to the club following stints in charge of Roma and Celta Vigo.

Last night presented the manager with the chance to take a significant step away from the suffocating shadow of his predecessor. And for 15 minutes it appeared as though Guardiola was inexplicably determined to give his former team-mate the most generous of helping hands. Either that or he was hoping to announce his return with a display of bravado that bordered on the contemptuous.

It’s hard to find any area of this current Barcelona side that is better than the one that hit an exhilarating peak when giving Manchester United a never to be forgotten run-around at Wembley in the Champions League final in 2011.

That side reached new heights but the current line-up does possess a three-pronged forward line of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez that could comfortably be regarded as the best in the world.

At the very least the trio are the undeniable strong point of the Barca team. And Guardiola’s initial response? To instruct his Bayern side to go man to man and press high all over the pitch, leaving the three forwards to be marked by just three defenders.

Only the remarkable presence of Manuel Neuer and unconvincing finishing by Suarez and Neymar spared Guardiola the most painful of starts and after 15 minutes of brinkmanship, Guardiola conceded his former club’s lingering strength and reverted to a back-four.

It had been an immediate squaring up and Enrique appeared to come out of it stronger, largely because Guardiola had appeared reckless. But Enrique had to, if he is to assert himself in a job that he doesn’t yet seem to have grown into.

This thrilling tie — a game that, together with the previous night’s meeting between Juventus and Real Madrid showed just how much ground the Premier League’s leading clubs have lost in comparison to genuine heavyweights —swung more on the brilliance of an individual rather than a tactical tweak, delivered from one of the technical areas.

But it is undeniably advantage Barcelona, moving Enrique closer towards completing a Champions League and La Liga double in his first season in charge.

Reports have emerged from Spain that the former midfielder does not enjoy the unwavering support of senior players in the dressing room, in contrast to the Guardiola era.

A winning manager, however, soon becomes a popular manager and no matter how significant the influence of individual players, Enrique’s standing just got stronger.