Barcelona fans will never forget Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

During the golden era of La Masia graduates, the pair of Spaniards were the creative force behind Barca teams that featured Samuel Eto'o, David Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry and a certain Lionel Messi.

And while those star-studded strikers would often take the acclaim for applying the finishing touch, you could be pretty certain that Xavi and Iniesta had something to do with each and every goal.

Their influence has been sorely missed at Camp Nou with Xavi having waved goodbye after the treble-winning 2014-15 season and his partner in crime waving goodbye three years later.

As much as Arthur has been named the 'next Xavi' and Frenkie de Jong looks like a real talent, we can be sure that the Blaugrana will never replicate their midfield duo between 2002 and 2015.

Xavi and Iniesta's legacy

You only need to look at the fact Chelsea manager and legend Frank Lampard recently named the pair as his toughest direct opponents in an interview with UEFA.

"The two players I always remember having the hardest time against were Xavi and Iniesta at Barcelona," Lampard explained.

"On their pitch it felt vast, and they just played football around you, and you didn't get near them. At the Bridge we got slightly closer to them, but those two, as a pair, were something special: it was football that wasn't normal to me. It was different from anything else I came up against."

Spain's FC Barcelona midfielder Xavi (R)

Xavi and Iniesta's greatest passes

Here at GIVEMESPORT, we voted the duo as the third and fourth best players of the last decade and it's astonishing that neither of them ended their career with a Ballon d'Or trophy.

However, one thing Iniesta and Xavi left behind is an absolute treasure trove of memories and we're happy to say that many of them were compiled into one video at the back end of last year.

YouTuber 'Messi Magic' released the video last September titled: "20 BOSS Passes Show Why Xavi & Iniesta Are The Greatest Midfielders Ever in Football".

It will come as little surprise that the video is approaching five million views already, so do yourselves a favour and check out the full montage down below:

See what Frank was on about? Yeh, just a bit.

If you're fans of the game being played in a beautiful manner like the rest of us, then Iniesta and Xavi are an absolute dream with their cutting through balls and pinball tiki-taka exchanges.

It's no wonder that Sir Alex Ferguson called Barca's 2011 Champions League-winning team the toughest side he ever faced and that each member of the front three bagged themselves a goal. 

FBL-EUR-C1-BARCELONA-TRAINING

You hear the term 'footballing brain' bounded around the sport quite casually, but just watching those two at their best clears up any definition or dispute about the phrase.

No matter what Barca go on to achieve in the years and decades to come, we're inclined to think their football won't ever be quite as exciting as when Iniesta and Xavi were pulling the strings.