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Not wanting to sacrifice their precious gem, Lionel Messi, FC Barcelona took the meticulous route to match the tenacity of Inter Milan and share the points at the San Siro in their Group B encounter in the UEFA Champions League. Barca progressed to the round of 16 with the draw.
Looking to finish the contest in their group as early in their fourth group stage match, Barcelona looked to be the more dominant side, however, Malcom's goal was cancelled out by Mauro Icardi three minutes before stoppage time.
We now look into the five takeaways from this draw for Barcelona.
#1 The silent operator continues to deliver
Though it looked like he didn't surface much in this match, Sergio Busquets still continue to play as the unnoticed, but impactful midfielder as he is.
With him operating as a holding midfielder, he anchored the visitor's attack as well as helped their side defend whenever he's needed. The only slip up he might've made in this match was the one that led to a goal.
After defending so well over the last 86 minutes, a minor mishap from Busquets provided Icardi just the inch of space he needed to grab the equalizer.
Nevertheless, the Spaniard still managed to feed lovely passes to his teammates throughout the match which helped his side dominate the possession as they moved the ball around.
The heavy load of being the anchorman for the Catalan giants seemed to be a big task to take, but Busquets welcomes it with open arms as well as with such finesse that even former Barca midfielder Xavi sing praises for him.
He's been strutting his stuff for a long time now but as the years go by it keeps on getting better for the Spaniard.
#2 Arthur continues to impress
Only in his fourth match in the Champions League, Arthur continued to impress as the replacement for Don Andres Iniesta. With their play consistently pivoting from him, the ball gets distributed from left to right or vice versa in a quick manner.
Not only did he show some finesse like the old No. 8, but he also showed some fantastic touches just like the old number six, Xavi Hernandez. It seems like two of the greatest midfielders was merged into a single body that is of Arthur Melo.
He proved to be among the elites in this match as his passing percentage is at 97% as well as created two goal-scoring chances for the travelling side.
He clearly provided a variety of options for Barca with his balling flying to the left side for Jordi Alba or his incisive passes for Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez.
#3 Luis Suarez continues to fire blanks away from home
Despite being in top form in the LaLiga after scoring five goals over the last five league matches, Suarez continues to struggle this season in the Champions League.
The Uruguayan hasn't scored for four games now and seems to be in a need of a boost in their next Champions League outing.
Throughout the match, 'El Pistolero' fired nine towards Inter's custodian but he only found the target once.
Clearly, something's missing in his arsenal to score goals on an intercontinental stage as he now finds himself level with Ronaldinho for shooting a lot without scoring a single goal in a Champions League match.
He now has three weeks to prepare himself for another match away from home as they travel to Eindhoven to face PSV knowing that he hasn't scored any goal over their last 15 champions league away matches.
#4 Malcom's first goal for Barca is sweet and bitter at the same time
Since signing for the Catalan giants back in July of this year, Malcom's appearances for the club has been limited.
As of posting, he only played a total of four matches for Barcelona, three of which came off the bench.
Despite the limited minutes, Malcom works hard for every minute he's had on the pitch and Tuesday night was no different.
Just 90 seconds after coming on for Ousmane Dembele, he received a pass from Coutinho then slotted it past Handanovic with the smallest of space he found.
With this performance, he just added a ton of value to his rating for Ernesto Valverde to look into. Considering that he did what Dembele couldn't do for 80 minutes in just under two minutes, this guy showed some grit.
#5 Reasonable result due to Messi's absence
Still recovering from the injury he got against Sevilla, Lionel Messi flew with the team to Milan as a sign of support to his teammates.
However, fans saw this as a positive and a negative thing as they had a glimmer of hope in seeing Messi play but might risk a relapse in his injury.
Valverde took the wiser approach of resting the five-time Balon d'Or winner for their upcoming matches. With that decision, he missed out a prolific scorer upfront to partner up with Suarez which then forced him to partner Dembele with the Uruguayan.
Though they were the first club to qualify for the Round of 16 of the Champions League this season, they still have a lot to polish in their tactics to make it to greater heights without relying on Messi.
Props to Coutinho for dictating the majority of the match as he was a constant threat against Nerazzurri. With him being their go-to guy aside from Suarez during Messi's absence, it builds up the confidence of the Brazilian and fits him more into the system.
