On a historic night at the Spotify Camp Nou, Hansi Flick did not merely secure victory. He walked into the Barcelona record books through the grandest of doors. The German coach fielded the youngest home starting line-up in the club's history, an average age of just 23.18 years that shattered a record standing for 14 years.
Journalist Oriol Domènech confirmed the side that started tonight is the youngest Barcelona have ever put out at the Camp Nou, edging past Pep Guardiola's famous 2011 line-up against BATE Borisov in the Champions League.
A line-up from La Masia: Raphinha the only one from the last century
Seven of the starters came through the La Masia academy. Two more, Pedri and Joan García, are Spanish internationals. Only Raphinha and Anthony Gordon were born outside Spain.
Dig into the numbers and the scale of Flick's youth revolution becomes clear. Raphinha, born in 1996, was the only starter born in the 20th century. Joan García, Eric García and Anthony Gordon arrived in 2001, Gerard Martín and Pedri in 2002, and Fermín in 2003.
The biggest surprise came further down the age scale. Flick trusted four players born in 2007 all at once: Pau Cubarsí, Marc Bernal, Xavi Espart and Lamine Yamal.
Barcelona the youngest in Spain and fifth in Europe
This is no one-off. It is a full project laid out by Deco. Barcelona currently have the youngest squad in the Spanish league at an average of 24.2 years, level with Levante, and rank as the fifth youngest team across Europe's five major leagues, behind Auxerre (23.6), Parma (23.4), Toulouse (22.5) and Strasbourg (22).
Eleven players in the squad are under the age of 20. Three of them, Lamine Yamal, Cubarsí and Bernal, already boast extensive experience at the highest level despite none being older than 19.
Only five players are over 30: Szczęsny (36), Cancelo (32), Livaković (31), Christensen and Rodri (30). Three of those are new signings. Anthony Gordon (25) and Adeyemi (24) reinforce what Deco calls the team's "middle class".
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With this line-up, Flick has officially broken the previous record held in Guardiola's name from December 2011, when the Catalan fielded five reserve-team players, Bartra, Rafinha, Cuenca, Montoya and Sergi Roberto, in a 4-0 win over BATE Borisov.