Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich, 2013 UEFA Champions League: A 7-0 beating

But merely accepting that Barcelona will remain a good team and shrugging one’s shoulders represents a failure to understand what happened over the two legs of this semifinal. Indeed, it’s to misread this entire Champions League campaign (and the Chelsea and Inter defeats). Here’s the truth: The rest of the world is catching up to tiki-taka. And at least one of the elite sides has already blown right past it.

It’s important to remember that Barcelona’s possession game is essentially a crutch. It’s designed to mitigate the fact that the Blaugrana defence is fundamentally unsound, allowing the side to play in almost ludicrously unbalanced fashion. All of the innovations Guardiola introduced to the side can be understood in the the light of minimising opposition ball touches; when Barca’s opponents don’t have the ball, they can’t score goals.

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With Barcelona pushing forward to absurd levels -- as you might expect -- Bayern were more than happy to keep hitting them on the break.

Despite the high tempo, pushing players forward and Bayern’s willingness to not sit back in a defensive shell, Barcelona simply couldn’t unlock the stubborn German defense. Bayern were being careful defensively and making sure they didn’t get caught out of position but they certainly weren’t parking the bus and refusing to even try and attack. Barca simply were incapable in the opening half to breaking down the defense and remain in a massive 4-0 aggregate hole with only 45 minutes left to play.

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The honest answer is probably not much but as we’ve seen over the years anything is possible in the Champions League, so even a struggling and wounded team like Barcelona are still dangerous. It’s like the cornered animal you always hear about that will doing anything to save itself and escape. At moments like this Barca could be more dangerous than ever...then again they could get hammered today.

As for the other two keys to a comeback, you’ll have to check out Barca Blaugranes but it’s definitely worth your time.