Chances came and went for both sides but it was defences and, in-particular goalkeepers, on top as Lyon and Barcelona played out a goalless draw at Parc Olympique Lyonnais.

It may be seen as a point very much earned for the French side in the first leg of this round-of-16 Champions League clash, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen played his part with two fine stops to keep Barca in it – his stunning one-handed palm onto the bar from Martin Terrier’s driving effort particularly impressive.

At the other end Anthony Lopes was similarly busy, even if the away side’s attackers were far from their flamboyant best.

Here, we take a closer look at one of them, Ousmane Dembele, who was in the thick of the action but a little thin on quality.

STATISTICS

Goals – 0

Assists – 0

Shots – 4

Shots on target – 1

Touches – 62

Key passes – 3

Pass accuracy – 78.1 %

Crosses – 5

Fouled – 4

30-SECOND REPORT

Take Ernesto Valverde’s decision to withdraw winger Dembele with 23 minutes to play any way you like. In many ways, the young Frenchman was Barcelona’s most threatening player on the pitch.

Another way of looking at it was he was erratic and wasteful with the ball when he had it, which was often. He is just coming back from injury, this was his third game and he hadn’t completed 90 minutes in the previous two, so patience should be preached.

GOT RIGHT

Always a threat – Even if he’s far from his best, Dembele can worry any defence with his devious trickery and unpredictability. Barca constantly looked to him as an outlet to spark attacks in a first leg that was surprisingly open from the very first whistle.

Even though he was some way short of his best form shown throughout much of this season, he has an excuse. What could Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez’s explanations be?

GOT WRONG

End product – The 21-year-old has regularly been criticised for sloppiness in his early Blaugrana days, yet he has massively cut out the errors and stepped up the consistency prior to this spell on the sidelines.

In that regard, it was disappointing here to see him so clueless when in the final third. Lyon’s defence closed him down at every occasion, but three shots off target from four attempts and no accurate crosses from five attempted are worrying statistics.

VERDICT

Too often here he looked like the Dembele of old. Aimlessly running down blind alleys and bereft of quality when needed.

However, he can’t be close to being 100-per-cent fully fit yet, so expectation must be tempered. He was hardly the only Barca player in luminous yellow off colour.

RATING: 5/10

All statistics are compiled using whoscored.com