Cape Town - Pitso Mosimane said although he was proud of his team's display there was an obvious gulf in class between Sundowns and the La Liga champions, Barcelona.

Barcelona made light work of their long distance trip to Johannesburg with a 3-1 win over Masandawana in their gala friendly for the Nelson Mandela Centenary Cup at Soccer City on Wednesday.

Goals by Ousmane Dembele, Luis Suarez and Andre Gomes handed the Catalans the win with Sibusiso Vilakazi grabbing a consolation goal.

"I think the difference is the Rand and the Euro, to sum it up," Mosimane said.

"When they scored the first goal in the first minute, we started to say, ‘How many goals were coming?’

"But we paid school fees tonight and I think you saw that.

"There’s a huge difference in terms of results and also we should have used our opportunities. I think Khama [Billiat] should have used his opportunity and Langerman should have used his also.

"But to sum it up, obviously you could see the difference. You could see the quality Barca have by how they pass the ball and we struggled to get the ball."

"There were times where they stole the ball, like taking a lollipop from the mouth of a small child.

"But we also took the ball from them, pressed them and they kicked the ball outside a few times. We pressed them, so at least we were doing something right. But it’s a big difference, let’s be honest. They are a big team."