There were suggestions that Barcelona anticipated seeing James among the 11 named on the team sheet but with Hayes opting for an altered tactical set-up, it was not until half-time that the young England international was introduced as one of the front two players.

‘We were playing 3-5-2 and where Eve Perisset was playing, that's not where Lauren’s strengths are going to be,’ Hayes explained.

‘You have to do a lot of work without the ball, whether you're pressing, whether you're working on your press cover positions, whether you are having to double down, there's a lot of tactical work you have to do out of possession, and that is a lot of work for Lauren to do.

‘So that is the right decision. Even in the second half you’ve seen it's not easy. Lauren will bring a threat going forward and she will do that for us going into the next round, but you have to defend really hard without the ball because they're so exceptional in possession that you know you have to pick and choose how you're going to do it, and I think we had the right strategy.’

The three at the back chosen yesterday were Jess Carter, Magda Eriksson and Maren Mjelde. When we took on Barca in the Champions League final two years ago, Carter played full-back and had a difficult game as we lost 4-0, but it went better in this re-match with the Blues just 1-0 behind going into the second leg.

‘Jess learned a lot that night,’ said Hayes. ‘She's still learning, but I think the back-three can all be very proud, they did the best they could.

‘The team as a whole defended as well as we could. They executed everything we'd asked from them eventually. It took too long. The first 10 minutes was the problem, we weren't aggressive in the right spaces in the right moments.

‘Maren had an exceptional game. We know to expect that but she has had to manage back from a lot of injury, but to put in that performance, what a shift from her!’