Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto'o were both kept under wraps by their former team-mates as Inter Milan held Champions League holders Barcelona to a goalless draw at the San Siro.
The Swede was much more involved than his Cameroon counterpart as treble winners Barca spent large parts of the game going forward, but neither player, or anyone else for that matter, was able to find the breakthrough as defences came out on top.
Barca were quickest out of the blocks and bossed most of the first half in the battle between the two big guns in Group F, while it was a similar story after the break as Jose Mourinho's Inter struggled to create many clear opportunities of their own.
Within 80 seconds, Lionel Messi tested Júlio César, racing on to Xavi Hernández's slide-rule pass, shimmying both ways and forcing the Brazilian into a one-handed save low to his left.
Daniel Alves then floated a pass to Ibrahimović, who chested the ball down beautifully, only to fire his volley over. Inter's defence was struggling to cope with Barca's fluid passing and moments later Alves teed up Messi, whose header lacked power.
After the break Inter showed more purpose, Sneijder unleashing an angled shot narrowly wide before substitute Dejan Stanković pounced on a loose ball, held up for him by Milito, and curled over the bar.
The next good chance fell to Messi, and Inter will have breathed a huge sigh of relief as the Argentinian superstar put the ball over the bar from six yards out after latching onto Thierry Henry's driven cross-shot.
Barca then had a loud penalty appeal turned down, believing Stankovic had handled in the area, but those claims fell on deaf ears and the Catalan giants were forced to settle for a draw.
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