admin“Paliza Historica” screamed Marca, acknowledging that the 4-0 defeat in Bavaria was, indeed, historic, and not in a good way. The cover picture of Lionel Messi, stood hands on hips and puffing out his cheeks — utterly helpless — was a powerful illustration of the significance of the night.
AS went further — “Fin de Ciclo” was their headline — suggesting that this era of dominance is drawing to its end. Underneath, it said that all Barcelona’s weaknesses had been brutally exposed all at the same time. Diario Sport took a more sombre tone: “La Noche Mas Triste” — “The Saddest Night” — reflecting succinctly the feelings of the millions of Barcelona admirers all over the world.
The general mood was that this was one of those defining results — the kind that come along every five years or so — that marks a transition, decline for one, ascension for another, a changing of the guard.
It makes sense — Barcelona have been playing their heavenly football for about six or seven years now, they’ve taken the game onto another level, winning three European Cups and becoming a regular fixture in the last four.
But we all knew it had to come to an end eventually — the question is whether that decline is happening right now and whether it is terminal.
After all, a win over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday night will wrest the La Liga title back from Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid, their fourth league crown in five seasons.
You don’t need to be reminded their team contains Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique and the rest.
They haven’t suddenly become bad players because they’ve struggled to win a couple of Champions League matches, although many of them were culpable last night of not doing enough. The French newspaper, L’Equipe, savaged Messi in their review, giving him 3/10 and describing his largely anonymous contribution as his worst match in ages.
Incapable of acceleration or inspiration, and clearly short of match fitness, he ran just 7,5km, less than everyone else in his team, and touched the ball only 72 times all night, including just two in the Bayern box — again considerably less than normal.
As might be expected, Barcelona enjoyed more of the ball — 65,7 per cent — but seldom has there been such limited attacking menace. Xavi, always the outlet for the team, did little of note, likewise Busquets.
Defensively, they struggled to contain Bayern’s threat in the air and physically in challenges and contests for the ball.
But this does not make them poor players all of a sudden, nor does it make Barcelona a bad team.
It was the scoreline and the manner of the victory that makes this feel like the end of an era.
It was the fact that for the first time in a decade or more, Barcelona were thoroughly humbled. When knocked out in recent years, most notably against Chelsea at this stage last season, they invariably dominated the tie and a single goal settled it.
La Liga has been a weak league this season, Barcelona almost winning by default after Real effectively threw in the towel early on.
So domestic matches almost became a distraction between those all-important Champions League ties that allowed Bayern to test themselves by the standards they have set themselves of late.
Now they have been usurped. It’s not as though this Bayern side have sprung up overnight — they’ve reached two of the last three Champions League finals and should by rights have won last year against Chelsea — but with this result they have announced themselves.
Already better than Barcelona, they are demonstrating a ruthless ambition to translate one outstanding season — in which the Treble is a very real possibility — into a sustained period of dominance.
Pep Guardiola is on his way in the summer, but you wonder how even he can improve on Jupp Heynckes’s free-wheeling, free-scoring side. They’ve scored 55 times in their last nine games. How do you make the best even better?
Even before last night’s exhibition, Bayern fans were cheered by the news that Borussia Dortmund star Mario Gotze is coming too. Talk about looting your biggest rivals, what a coup that is.
For Barcelona, it was the ‘saddest night’ because they were so brilliantly outplayed by the new force in European football, but it isn’t necessarily the end of their glorious era. —Mailonline.
Online Reporter