From two passes of superhuman accuracy, Messi deserved better than Andres Iniesta's first-half miss, while in the second half, Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was required to deliver his own brand of genius and save a Luis Suarez shot to deny Barca an away goal.

Instead, Messi and his teammates were sunk by the finishing of Paulo Dybala. First, Dybala curved in from the flank and curled a shot around Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the seventh minute, and then thrashed home a second goal in the 22nd minute after Mario Mandzukic laid off the ball in the inside-right channel. Dybala may brush aside comparisons to his Argentine compatriot Messi, but on Tuesday night Dybala announced himself as a talent who might one day accompany, and eventually supplant, Barcelona's idol for both club and country.

"As a kid I dreamed of moments like this," Dybala said in the immediate aftermath. "Today I made it happen. It was a great performance. We knew that we needed to win without conceding any goals, and we did it."

Those fireworks confirmed Barca legend Xavi's prematch opinion that Dybala, 23, is "the right player for us" and a "natural talent already very ready to play for Barcelona."

At present there seems to be no vacancy in Barcelona's team, but that may not be long in coming. While Messi glittered all game despite being forced to do much of his work in midfield, Suarez was somewhat off the pace, a bruiser rather than cruiser as he battled in vain with Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Buffon. Messi will be 30 in June; Suarez passed that mark in January. Since Barca manager Luis Enrique is moving on in the summer, a new coach may want something different from Barcelona's attack.

Neymar, just 25, was far quieter than when he played the hero of the 6-1 second-leg comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16. He may have been distracted by the three-match ban handed out earlier on Tuesday by Spanish football authorities, meaning he will miss Barcelona's April 23 Clasico, which will probably decide La Liga.

Meanwhile, Juventus would prefer that any speculation about Dybala is put to one side for the moment, with the player himself indicating his desire to stay on in Turin for a little while longer. "I am very happy at Juventus; my contract renewal is very close and I want to make the most of what we are doing here," he said.

Paulo Dybala's two goals were too much for Barcelona to overcome even though Lionel Messi spun his usual magic.

Departure day will come soon enough, however, since Juve's status as Italian football's perennial dominant force never stopped them from selling players such as Zinedine Zidane in 2001 or Paul Pogba last summer to pay for their next team. Gianluigi Buffon, expected to become part of Juve's hierarchy when he hangs up his gloves, seemingly spoke for the organisation after the match.

"Dybala has grown exponentially over the last two years," Buffon said afterward, adopting the tones of a sporting director.

"When I talk to directors or friends in football, I've been saying for a while that he is good enough to be in the top five players in the world and wouldn't be out of place in the top three. Having said that, he needs to prove it every time and with regularity to show he is worthy of our expectations of him."

Allegri, during a news conference at which he thoroughly enjoyed himself even though the job is only half-done, was playful when asked about Juve's latest shining star. "Paulo played a great game, but I don't need to tell you that," he said.

On Tuesday night, Dybala made a great leap into world football's broader consciousness and surged beyond the confines of Serie A, where his reputation has already been high. He made a €32 million arrival at Juventus (from Palermo) in June 2015 on the eve of the Champions League final that Juve lost 3-1 to Barcelona. Two seasons on, he served as Juve's match winner, taking them to the brink of revenge for that night in Berlin.

Dybala shone in the presence of Messi. There are comparisons to draw between the pair - for instance, they both were red-carded on their debuts for Argentina -- but on Tuesday at the Juventus Stadium, we saw that they are different players. Despite playing off centre-forward Gonzalo Higuain, Dybala is far more of a pure striker than Messi has ever been, and even at 23 years old, it's difficult to imagine Dybala conducting the orchestra as Argentine's elder statesman does. In this match, Messi tried to inspire a stirring push for an away goal that never came.

It should also be remembered that by the time he was 23, Messi was already the world's best. His performance in defeat in Turin reminded why he still retains that status.