Just before taking to the pitch at the Champions League final in the Olympic Stadium in Rome, Barcelona gaffer Pep Guardiola played a short film to his team in his team’s dressing room. The clip has since been aired on Spanish television and you can see the motivational masterstroke above.

The seven-minute production, commissioned by Guardiola specifically for the final, sees every player in the Barcelona squad, from those who were suspended for the final – Dani Alves and Eric Abidal – to bit-part players – Eidur Gudjohnsen and Alex Hleb – doing their bit for the Barcelona cause.

The whole piece is intercut with Ridley Scott’s Gladiator: as Russell Crowe clashes swords, Carles Puyol rises to power a bullet header; as Crowe grits his teeth beneath his Roman pith, Samuel Etoo beams as he neatly slots past the oncoming keeper.

Each player gets his own starring role in a joyous masterstorke of motivation, which culminates to Pavarotti’s stirring renditon of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma – a segment which compares the players entering the stadium to gladiators entering the Coliseum.

The final message reads: "We are the centre of the pitch, we are precise, we are our effort, we are attackers who defend, we are defenders who attack, we are respected by our rivals, we are recognised by our rivals, we are every goal that we score, we are those who always look for our opponent's goal, WE ARE ONE."

Whilst Manchester United’s final preperations apparently involved Ronaldo falling asleep during the Coronation Street Omnibus, when the lights went up in the Barca changing room, some players were moved to tears and began to gee one another up.

Guardiola said nothing else to anyone of them until kick off. Stirring stuff indeed.

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