The little Dutch boy who put his chubby eight-year-old finger in a dyke and saved the city of Haarlem, and possibly the rest of the Netherlands, from ending up under water is a fictional character. Juande Ramos, the new coach of Real Madrid, is a real person, which may explain why, against Barcelona on Saturday night, his finger-in-the-dyke routine came up short. Real were overmatched and eventually capitulated eight minutes from time.

The task facing the former Tottenham Hotspur manager was always going to be monumental, which is why his predecessor, Bernd Schuster, described it as “impossible”, an opinion that helped to precipitate his departure. With eight players unavailable – including Ruud van Nistelrooy, Pepe, Mahamadou Diarra and Arjen Robben - plus another two who were present but clearly in no condition to play - Wesley Sneijder, who had to come off in the first half, and Rafael van der Vaart, who featured in the last 15 minutes - Ramos had to invent a starting XI from scratch at the Nou Camp.

In this age of mega-squads and rotation, it was surreal to see him forced to play Sergio Ramos out of position at left back, with the injury-prone Christoph Metzelder, making only his second start of the season, in central defence and Michel Salgado, the forgotten man, on the right. Roysten Drenthe, something of an enigma in his first 18 months at the Bernabéu — he made more headlines for driving the wrong way up a one-way street than anything he did on the pitch — was deployed in midfield for only the fourth time this year. Facing them were Barcelona, a side who had been averaging nearly three goals a game this season and were close to full strength.

It was always going to be one-way traffic, but the match was entertaining nonetheless. Barcelona are one of the few sides in Europe whose 4-3-3 is not a 4-5-1 in disguise. Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi rarely track back and, while this means that the midfield is sometimes undermanned, it also means that the opposing full backs cannot really join the attack. It is a prototypical case of defending by attacking.

On Saturday night this was compounded by Fernando Gago, Ramos’s holding midfield player, effectively acting as a third central defender, which, given the makeshift back four, made sense. This negated any man-advantage Real might have had in midfield, as did the fact that Daniel Alves, the Barcelona right back, pushed right up the pitch.

Indeed, the game provided a fascinating tactical battle. Much of Barcelona’s initiative in the first half came down the right, Alves combining with Messi to wreak havoc on Real’s left and forcing their opponents to hack down repeatedly the little Argentinian. Real countered at times, by swapping Metzelder — who is left-footed but, after umpteen knee operations, has the build and mobility of a Golem — and Ramos around and turning Drenthe into an adjunct left back. Later, Josep Guardiola made his own switch, regularly sending Thierry Henry down the middle and shifting Samuel Eto’o to the left, where he could take on Salgado.

There is often the impression that Barcelona v Real turns into a series of one-on-one battles and that is largely what happened. This obviously tends to suit the more talented side, which is why Ramos tried his best to turn it into a more traditional contest. And, for much of the game, he succeeded, thanks to the tight defensive triangle of Gago, Fabio Cannavaro and Metzelder, whose intelligence and anticipation more than made up for his lack of mobility.

Real were also helped by Iker Casillas, who had been going through a rough patch for a month or so, reminding everyone why he is one of the top three goalkeepers in the world, if not No 1, at least until Gianluigi Buffon returns from injury and Petr Cech regains his mojo. Casillas saved a penalty from Eto’o and, later, pulled off a miraculous close-range save to deny Messi.

Eto’o would have been the villain of the piece — he was not Barcelona’s designated penalty-taker but grabbed the ball from Messi and insisted on taking it — but he found redemption eight minutes from time, pouncing on a loose ball and poking it past Casillas. Messi added a second in injury time, which was probably fair.

Barcelona confirmed that, right now, they are the best side in Europe and, probably, the only one firing on all cylinders. Guardiola’s scheme may be based on his “dream team” experience under Johan Cruyff in the 1990s, but it is an upgraded and updated version. That half his team is made up of home-grown players is a credit to the Barcelona way and underscores just how important a well-run academy can be. At the same time, however, there are clear chinks in the armour — Alves is vulnerable defensively, there is no real aerial threat in midfield and attack. If opponents can keep possession, Barcelona struggle to get it back — which will make the rest of the season rather interesting.

Ramos did what he was paid to do: maximise what few resources he has right now and avoid calamity. Just how long he can keep his finger in the dyke remains to be seen.