This year in Europe it was supposed to be different but Barcelona will have to do it the hard way, with coach Xavi Hernandez watching his credit start to drain.
Xavi insisted the Catalans are on the right track after winning La Liga last season and their three opening Champions League matches, but a shock 1-0 defeat by Shakhtar Donetsk stopped them dead in their tracks on a chilling Tuesday night in Hamburg.
Barca were expected to clinch qualification to the Champions League knock-out rounds but fell woefully short, failing to significantly trouble the Ukrainian champions at any point in the game.
"All the European ghosts of previous years came down on Barcelona," wrote Spanish newspaper Marca.
"The eliminations from past years against Bayern, Benfica, and Inter. And yesterday's opponent had a much lower level than all of these."
While Barcelona still lead Group H on nine points, level with their next opponents Porto, and are expected to qualify, pressure has started to build on Xavi.
Barcelona have not won the Champions League since 2015 and after gambling a chunk of the club's future income to make a slew of signings in 2022. are desperate to reestablish themselves among Europe's elite.
Losing the Clasico in stoppage time against rivals Real Madrid on October 28 was a morale blow, and even though Barca beat Real Sociedad 1-0 on Saturday, they were lucky to do so after a weak performance.
In the Shakhtar defeat he reverted to Barcelona's classic 4-3-3 with two wide forwards, but Shakhtar negated it by asking their wingers to track back diligently.
Spearhead Robert Lewandowski is blunter than he has been in a decade, with no goals in his last six games for the club, while the 35-year-old's unwillingness or inability to press is setting Barca back.
It might be one way of arresting the slump the team have fallen into, a far cry from mid-September when they thrashed Real Betis and Royal Antwerp 5-0 back-to-back.
Xavi heralded those performances as among the best of his two years in charge, but on Tuesday they were operating at the other end of the spectrum.
Even though Barcelona will likely still progress, it was a performance to suggest advancing beyond that will pose a significant challenge.
The Catalans have improved under Xavi, but perhaps not quite enough to satisfy president Joan Laporta or a demanding fanbase.