Thomas Vermaelen was the surprise hero as Barcelona maintained their 100 percent start to the season with a tricky 1-0 win over Malaga.
None of Lionel Messi, Neymar or Luis Suarez could find the breakthrough as Luis Enrique’s side looked set to drop their first points of the season for large parts of the game.
But then, inside the final 20 minutes, the former Arsenal man struck from inside the penalty area to hand Barcelona their second successive win of the campaign.
Here are five things we learned from Barça's victory on Saturday:
Match-winner Vermaelen can now feel like a Barcelona player
After a year on the sidelines injured, Vermaelen made his debut for Barça in the final league game of last season against Deportivo La Coruña.
Speaking in the mixed zone after that game, he said it was difficult to feel like part of the team’s success, even though his new teammates had given him plenty of support throughout a difficult year after his move from Arsenal.
On Sunday morning, though, it will be Vermaelen’s name adorning the front of the Catalan press.
Starting for the third consecutive La Liga game, he followed up last week’s assured performance against Athletic Club with another confident and classy display.
There was a cherry on top, too.
With Malaga looking unbeatable at the back, a Luis Suarez cross dropped to the Belgian and he thumped it into the back of the net to seal the three points.
There have been a lot of jokes made about him and his fitness over the last 12 months; this time he’s the one having a laugh.
Kameni and Malaga’s Gracia can be beaten!
It was a long time coming, but after 253 minutes, Luis Enrique’s Barcelona scored a goal against Javi Gracia’s Malaga.
Barça’s last league defeat, which is now 16 games ago, was a 1-0 loss to Malaga at Camp Nou before their Champions League trip to Manchester City.
In the fixture at La Rosaleda earlier in the same season, Gracia’s men had held Enrique’s side to a goalless draw.
And for large parts of Saturday’s game, there was a feeling of deja vu.
Malaga’s back four held strong and kept their shape — despite the early introduction of Raul Albentosa for the injured captain, Weligton — and Carlos Kameni wound up Messi.
Everything the Argentine threw at the Malaga stopper, he seemed to have an answer to.
However, he had no answer to Vermaelen as Barcelona at last broke their recent hoodoo against Kameni, Gracia and Malaga.
Barcelona believe the world is against them
As referee Santiago Jaime Latre and his officials made their way down the tunnel at half time, deafening whistles echoed around Camp Nou.
Nothing gets the local support going like a couple of debatable refereeing decisions.
Their feathers had already been ruffled early on because a Suarez goal was ruled out for a push on Marcos Angeleri, when Latre refused them a penalty.
Neymar looked to cut back beyond the diving Miguel Torres, only for the ball to appear to catch the full-back’s flailing arm — no penalty.
Within minutes Catalan newspaper Diario SPORT ran a story complaining that a penalty had been given against Gerard Pique for a similar offence last season.
Then Suarez was clipped by Angeleri in the area — once again, no penalty.
The fans certainly don’t believe poor decisions sometimes happen.
Barça were so successful last season, they feel, that everyone’s going to make them work that little bit harder this season to repeat thats success.
To be fair, though, they probably should have had at least one spot kick here.
Neymar’s mumps-free and not going to Manchester
Regardless of how serious Manchester United’s interest is in persuading Neymar to swap matés with Luis Suarez for pints with Wayne Rooney, it’s certainly not going to happen this August.
The Brazilian is back from his spell out with mumps and allowed to resume his love story with Messi and Suarez — it was the first time the three had been seen together competitively since the Champions League final in June.
Considering his lack of action recently, he looked fairly sharp.
In the second half he was a regular source of danger on the left, creating chance after chance for Messi, only for Kameni to block the route to goal.
Roberto can fill in for the injured Alves
Dani Alves limped off and was replaced by Sergi Roberto at right-back during last week’s game against Athletic.
Roberto impressed enough at San Mames to keep his place in the team and he was once again in good nick against Malaga — both defending and attacking.
Normally a central midfielder, Roberto’s name is more often hear being linked to Everton or Stoke City, but he’s now getting some spotlight for what he’s doing on the pitch.
It’s only likely to be temporary — Alves is due back within a month — but Roberto’s proving an able deputy.