As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire. Marcus Rashford was smouldering in any case, but now he can really proclaim himself to be among the hottest properties in Europe.
Rashford had already underlined his improvements for Manchester United before earning a first-class ticket to the World Cup with England this winter. After his three goals on the biggest stage - despite only being handed one start there - the ascent has been steeper than ever before.
Everything the Academy graduate has touched since boarding his return flight has turned to goals. United will need their golden boy to continue his purple patch in order to spearhead their quest for silver.
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Of course, man-of-the-moment Rashford has not been alone in breaking previous personal bests since Erik ten Hag was appointed as manager, but his 22nd goal of the season against Barcelona was symbolic for more reasons than purely its iconic setting - although he did point to that himself post-match.
Coming up 24 years since Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lit up the Nou Camp on that night in '99, the star shining brightest right now defined and underlined his own career high to date, at least from an individual perspective. He took to Twitter after the final whistle to pay homage to those two.
It was a goal which moved Rashford level with his most prolific season (2019/2020) and in nine matches fewer. It is not a question of if, or when, but how many.
Although there has never been any doubt about his ability, Rashford and his credentials as goal-getter in chief is something that has drawn question marks - perhaps justifiably until this campaign. But while United still need a main striker to complement him, Rashford continues to step up with jaw-dropping success.
No player in Europe has scored more goals than Rashford since Lionel Messi finally got his hands on the World Cup trophy. Even so, despite continually hitting new heights this season, the message for Rashford has been to demand more (and more) from himself still, if that is even still possible?
It was a feature when Ten Hag spoke to the media post-Leeds (following another Rashford goal) and United hero Ferdinand sang to that tune when addressing Rashford on his popular FIVE podcast. He said: "I think that there's more of a dominance throughout the 90 minutes that he can bring.
"He can take over a game. He's got that and we've seen him do that at points this season."
Rashford promptly took over at the Nou Camp. At a similar juncture to United, albeit sitting top in La Liga this season, Barcelona are not the force once they were but are on an upwards curve once again, so too United as they highlighted during a pulsating midweek showdown.
United had enough chances to put distance between themselves and Barcelona before their mouth-watering return at Old Trafford next Thursday night, but had it not been for Rashford dragging them back into the game they equally might have been facing a deficit heading into that second leg.
After the Catalans delivered an initial sucker punch, Rashford opted to take matters into his own and fired his team back on terms. He needed 162 seconds to do so after Barcelona took the lead to pass the challenge laid down to him from a man who simply could not hold back his delight on social media afterward.
Ferdinand urged Rashford to take the next step pre-match. His comments were not to detract from what the England forward had achieved this campaign to this stage, but the former United defender knew he has what it takes to place himself among the best players in Europe.
By tagging Rashford into his Twitter post while the first leg was still going on, Ferdinand pretty much summed up what everyone associated with United thinks about him right now, and he followed up his simple fire emoji verdict with the obligatory smoke...
Opposition defenders are attempting to deal with nothing short of a full-blown blaze.
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