Busquets and Tymoshchuk: brothers in arms

There is a difference in age, a stark disparity in hair colour and a slight height gap, but in playing philosophy, pitch position, specialities and importance to their team it was like watching twins tackling each other when Sergio Busquets and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk faced off at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.

Indeed such were their positions they were a little like mirror images – occupying the centre of pitch, darting left and right, 20 metres forward and back, as if they were connected by a harness.

Good things flow from this pair; everything else is filtered out. I saw Vicente del Bosque head for the FC Barcelona man in the final two or three minutes in the tunnel before kick-off and say: "'Busi', lots of care, lots of control – take charge." It would be no surprise if, at the same moment, Mykhailo Fomenko had been doing precisely the same with Tymoshchuk.

I also recall Del Bosque saying in Potchefstroom, Spain's 2010 FIFA World Cup base, that if he were to be reincarnated as a modern professional it would be, by preference, Busquets. On the night, however well Busquets played – and he did – the winner of their individual battle was blond, Ukrainian and 35 years old, rather than swarthy, Catalan and nine years younger.

Busquets' side left Seville with the three points which now put distance at the top of Group C between Slovakia and Spain, and Ukraine in third. But it was legitimate for Tymoshchuk to talk to UEFA.com afterwards about "missed chances" and the impact of "Iker Casillas's fantastic saves".

From Tymoshchuk's relentless work, his midfield partner Ruslan Rotan found a platform to make run after run towards Casillas's goal, until the match could be reduced into a personal duel between two 33-year-olds – one from Madrid and one from Poltava.

Rotan had freedom to choose his moment to sprint into space 'between the lines' because of Tymoshchuk's superb positioning, ability to read the game, speed of reaction and general calm which comes from the experience of 137 national-team appearances. It was a visual demonstration of the phrase: 'I've got your back'.

Busquets, effectively, was doing the same – protecting the runs of Andrés Iniesta, pushing the ball quickly to Isco and David Silva. The difference was that, as a partner, Tymoshchuk had a sprinter with a terrific eye for goal, and a will to get there directly.

That Rotan and Iniesta have a nearly identical record of an international goal about every ten games is a surprise. On another night, had Casillas been below par, Ukraine might have won – perhaps even by a couple of goals. Rotan might have had a hat-trick.

In just under three weeks Tymoshchuk, a true maestro of the controlling or 'pivote' midfield role, will be back at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán for FC Zenit's UEFA Europa League quarter final against holders Sevilla FC.

Neutrals should tune in. There are many years left of Busquets and his assured, intelligent midfield organising. But of his tall, blond, Ukranian 'twin' perhaps a good deal fewer. Catch him while you can.