In the stadium where the words, "Can Manchester United score? They always score" were uttered, a goal seemed beyond every United player. Apart from Marcus Rashford.
Finally, the United supporters hemmed in so high in Camp Nou they may have experienced altitude sickness had a goal to celebrate. The club's last at the gladiatorial bowl was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's instinctive prod almost 24 years ago.
It had to be Rashford who put Barcelona to the sword. It was under Solskjaer that Rashford first showed his true goalscoring prowess and he claimed United's first goal at Barcelona since Dwight Yorke equalled his season-best tally from 2019-20.
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Erik ten Hag and Xavi agreed Rashford is one of the finest goalscorers in Europe and he demonstrated that at European football's Mecca. Rashford is in world-class and career-best form.
While Rashford was mobbed by teammates, Erik ten Hag coolly conversed with Raphael Varane. Ten Hag will have felt affronted United were only level, so glaring were their goalscoring opportunities either side of the pause.
Seven minutes later, Rashford sped past Raphinha so quickly he could have left tyre tracks in his wake and the ball bounced in off Jules Kounde. Rashford raced just as quickly towards the United fans. Beer rained down from the away section and many more pints will be consumed by Mancunians before they return to the airport.
This may be the Europa League but United are a credible force again. It was apparent in Barcelona coach Xavi's defensive alterations and the hesitancy that spread throughout their back four. Barca will be relieved to have drawn.
Ten Hag promised United would be on the front foot and they barely took a step back. He was still cajoling the United players to press as the 90th minute loomed.
United are such a progressive club again they will be disappointed to touch down in Manchester without a first win over Barcelona at their awe-inspiring ground. Sir Alex Ferguson, watching on in the directors' box, may have had flashbacks of the scintillating 3-3 he witnessed in November 1998. This one ended 2-2.
On an evening when Ten Hag was as cool as the Catalan air, he was incongruously yellow-carded for appealing over Kounde's unpunished challenge on Rashford. Ten Hag politely requested an explanation and was not as visibly demonstrative as Xavi. It was not the first or last cynical foul Barcelona resorted to. United's intensity, even with the one-paced Wout Weghorst, often overwhelmed La Liga's leaders.
Ten Hag will have seethed over Barcelona's equaliser; via another Raphinha cross that evaded everyone. Barcelona became so reliant on aerial deliveries Casemiro struck his own post from a set-piece in a late scramble.
It would have been a travesty had United lost, never mind not scored. They returned to the sensory-like tunnel at the interval goalless, having wasted two glaring chances. Jadon Sancho tamely shot wide at the start of the second half with the goal gaping to set an ominous tone. That was compounded by Marcos Alonso rising to head in from a corner in the 50th minute.
It was telling Rashford was the only United scorer in a match they scored twice. Rashford has carried United's attack all season and goals remain hard to come by for a side with a meagre 38 in 23 Premier League games. Rashford has more than three times as many goals as the next highest scorer Bruno Fernandes, on seven. That chasm is not going to narrow with Weghorst.
The respect United command again on the continent could be gauged by Xavi mirroring Ten Hag's repositioning of Luke Shaw as left-back Alonso started at centre-back. Ronald Araujo and Kounde also switched roles on the right side of defence but that tactical intrigue was incomparable with the innovation from Ten Hag.
United's attacking quartet all started in positions they were not predicted to; Fernandes on the right, Weghorst as the 10, Sancho on the left and Rashford at the tip of the arrow. Weghorst ended the win at Leeds in a withdrawn role and he was so deep at times at Camp Nou that Fred was ahead of him.
Fernandes has not allowed himself to be inhibited by stints on the flank and he has become a more flexible footballer for it. Barcelona's high defensive line was breached inside 20 seconds but Fernandes's cross was too sharp for any of his teammates.
The last time Casemiro was at Camp Nou, he was flanked by Toni Kroos and Luka Modric. In his 20th appearance against Barcelona, he was occasionally paired with Weghorst. Fred, sloppy with the ball and clumsy without it, irritated Fernandes and Ten Hag but rallied after he lost Alonso for the opening goal.
Spooked by Robert Lewandowski's opportunity in the ninth minute, United eventually abandoned their reticence through the usually reticent Aaron Wan-Bissaka, yet Sancho failed to connect with his pull-back.
With Casemiro occupying a more defensive remit, United lacked a conduit between defence and attack, so Fernandes drifted inside and found the gap to play Weghorst through. Weghorst might as well have been ploughing through a quagmire as Kounde caught up and the Ducthman had to stretch to shoot straight at Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
On a night he assumed a different positional identity, Weghorst did not resemble a goalscorer and his record is now one goal in nine games.
But United did score.
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