The Nou Camp's private chapel, set aside for superstar footballers of a nervous disposition, will be short of supplicants today. Rivaldo and Co have little to fear from Leeds.

Barcelona did not bother to send a spy to Highfield Road, where a muscular, depressingly mediocre, goalless draw underlined the fault-lines in David O'Leary's squad - stretched as it is by injury and international call-ups.

Earthy values, rather than divine guidance, should suffice for the Spanish giants in Wednesday's opening Champions League fixture.

Leeds badly missed the imagination of Harry Kewell and the sharpness of Mark Viduka against a Coventry side who have yet to win at home this season.

Michael Duberry is not an authentic replacement in defence for Jonathan Woodgate, and Lee Bowyer is isolated in midfield.

O'Leary had to be satisfied with cameo appearances from Jason Wilcox and Stephen McPhail, refugees from an overpopulated treatment room.

Progress past the first stage of the Champions League will, the Leeds manager acknowledged, 'be an unbelievable achievement'.

Far better, then, to take advantage of the diversion provided by the game's solitary talking point, a rash challenge by Youssef Chippo which left Darren Huckerby in a heap.

'A blatant penalty,' insisted O'Leary. He made his apologies for criticising referee Paul Durkin without losing the opportunity to make his point. 'There were a lot of dubious decisions out there,' he said. ' I know Darren is not a cheat. The lad had his legs taken away from him.'

Equally predictably, O'Leary claimed not to have noticed an angry exchange involving Michael Bridges and Gary Kelly after the final whistle.

The only wonder was that anyone could get worked up by such a pallid game.

Even Gordon Strachan, any psychoanalyst's favourite Premiership manager, was downbeat.

'Good players find it difficult to play,' he mourned. 'There are a lot of games like that at the beginning of the season. It's so hectic right now.'

Strachan won a championship as a Leeds player. He was immersed in the club's culture, embodied their intensity. He even scored for them in Barcelona, neutral venue for a 1992 European Cup-tie against Stuttgart.

Comparisons with O'Leary, a product of the same generation, are inevitable. Differing approaches and attitudes reflect the disparity in their characters.

O'Leary might profess to be a sucker for charity appeals conducted by animal sanctuaries; Strachan's only interest in distressed donkeys is to ensure one doesn't feature in his forward line.

The Scot rants, the Irishman reflects. One searches for bargains in North Africa and South America, the other has the resources to shop rather more selectively. Each, however, has cause to curse the Olympic Games.

Strachan was robbed of two newly-signed Hondurans, Jairo Martinez and Ivan Guerrero. O'Leary, without Kewell for three months due to an Achilles injury, lost Viduka - another prominent member of Elland Road's Australian community - to the call of the Koala.

Leeds surprised Coventry by utilising Huckerby's speed wide on the left of a three-man attack, but it proved to be a fruitless gesture.

Bridges went closest to breaking the deadlock with two instinctive volleys, struck with the outside of his right boot.

Bowyer, as ever a slave to his fragile temperament, should have done better than to shoot against the legs of Magnus Hedman when sent clear midway through the second half.

Coventry's response was to exploit the intuitive skills of Moustapha Hadji, nominally employed wide in a front three alongside Cedric Roussel and Craig Bellamy. The Moroccan's movement was constant and clever. His instinctive overhead kick, which floated just wide of the far post, was a welcome change from the earnest endeavour all around him.

'I know we can play better than that,' said O'Leary. 'We have some key players missing. If we stay in the shake-up until Christmas we'll have a chance.'