Neymar the Jewel in Barcelona's Crown in Explosive Win over Atletico Madrid
While it's difficult to state an exact figure for Neymar's transfer, it's clear he was worth every penny after Barcelona's 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Copa del Rey.
One performance can't put him up alongside a true great of the game, like Lionel Messi, but this was not just one performance. It was the deserved reward for an excellent six months of football and his bouncing back from a devastating World Cup injury to prove himself at the highest level.
Last season at Barcelona there were flashes of Neymar, glimpses of the man and player he could become, but we didn't get the real thing, the full version.
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The Brazilian has an amazing power to unbalance defences, a combination of skill, speed and even strength; he carries more weight than he did last season, and it's all muscle.
Barcelona's new, counter-attacking, occasionally almost berserk style works because of the power in that front three.
Luis Suarez, Messi and Neymar are players who all think and move quickly. If the team gets the ball to them as quickly as possible, it leaves little breathing room for the opposition.
We saw how a ball from Marc-Andre ter Stegen found Neymar like a knife through butter, but the Brazilian was called offside before he put the ball in the net. But Neymar's two goals were the perfect examples of how Luis Enrique is making the counter-attack work for Barcelona.
The first saw Messi feed Suarez, whose snapped, outside-of-the-boot through ball played Neymar in. He fired past Jan Oblak to pull Barcelona level on the night, the first goal in their eventual 3-2 win.
His second goal was even better. By this time, the score was 2-2. Jordi Alba handled Antoine Griezmann's strike in the box, which should have awarded a penalty to Atletico. But referee Gil Manzano didn't blow, and Barcelona broke away brilliantly. Messi played the key part in the move, seeing an opportunity to find Neymar but instead taking a second longer and finding Alba on the left.
The defender, who had raced the length of the pitch to get involved after his own indiscretion, flew into the box and cut the ball back for Neymar to knock past Oblak and into the net.
Barcelona had conquered Atletico for the third time in three games this season, whereas they couldn't beat them once in six occasions last term.
The difference? Barcelona's changed style.
Patience and careful passing was bread and butter for Diego Simeone's Atletico defence to lap up before breaking away and hurting the Catalans on the break. This season, though, the Argentine tactician has found no response to wave after brutal wave of surgical strikes by Barcelona.
His team have lost their heads in two of the games. In the 3-1 La Liga defeat they trod a fine line between tough and brutal, but this clash was clearly too much for them to handle.
Arda Turan flung his boot in the direction of the linesman, Gabi was sent off at half-time and Mario Suarez followed him for an early bath in the second half.
Juanfran, who had a shocking game in which he was run ragged by Neymar and Alba, resorted to mocking the striker by showing the 7-1 scoreline with which Germany beat Brazil in the World Cup semi-final.
That, of course, was a match Neymar missed with the injury suffered against Colombia; a match which has created an immense desire within him that wasn't quite there last season; a match which has shaped his future.
And perhaps Barcelona's, too.
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