Lamine Yamal set the LaLiga champions on the road to a key three points, before a double from club captain Raphinha sealed the result, to end Villa's run of three UCL wins.
Unai Emery looked for positives in his post-match analysis, stating how Barca showed his players the targets they need to hit, and Villa skipper John McGinn believes the margins were very narrow.
"Barcelona made the right decisions at the right times and scored good goals.
"The manager spoke about being clinical at important moments in the game. When you come here, 50-50s sometimes don't go your way. They also leave players up the pitch, so if you lose the ball they can be away.
"I think we are competitive against teams at this level, we've shown that whether it's Bayern Munich or PSG. It was a huge learning curve for us, and I'm sure it will stand us in good stead for the future."