Barcelona are in a class of their own.

When the Catalan team made it to the final of the Champions League, and were to face Manchester United, we had written that it is a rarity that the best two teams in a competition arrive to contest for the top spot.

But what happened in London last Saturday clearly showed that, while we stick to the position taken a few weeks ago, there is still a great disparity between Barcelona and United, and the rest of the teams that took part in this year’s competition.

Bar for the first 10 minutes of the match, when Manchester United took the game to their opponents, it was Barcelona who dominated. Their ball possession game is tremendously calm and efficient, apart from frustrating to their opponents, and they are patient enough to wait for the right time to make that final pass that leaves one of their strikers unmarked in front of goal.

United did all they could, even getting back into the game after going 1-0 down (the goal should have been ruled out offside), but they were not on the same wavelength as their opponents. Barcelona were immediately back in the driving seat, and the end-result was never in doubt.

This was Barcelona’s second success in three years, and they did not make it three in a row only because they were at the wrong end of refereeing blunders in their double encounter with Inter last year.

What is more astonishing is the fact that most of the Barcelona players are home-grown. Today, most clubs rely on buying players from other teams to build their squad. On the other hand, Barcelona have always believed in their nursery, and although they might have had to wait for some time before their players matured, today they are reaping the fruit.

For one thing, they do not need to spend so much money to bring in fresh players, as their arch-rivals Real Madrid have been doing for years on end without ever being able to attain their goals. All Barcelona do is buy one or two players just to fill in the gaps, as they did with Villa last year and as they will probably be doing with Giuseppe Rossi this season.

It will be difficult for other teams to reach Barcelona’s level and quality of play in the near future.