Jupp Heynckes hailed his players after Bayern Munich’s emphatic 4-0 win over Barcelona in the first-leg of the teams’ UEFA Champions League semifinal series. “Wehave been playing extraordinary football for the entire season now,” the Bayern coach said during the post-game press conference. “We have a fantastic team and the players get along greattogether, both on and off the pitch.

He added: “The tactical awareness of this team is top notch as well, just like their willingness to run and fight for one another. Today’s gamewas a perfect example of that…I know we still face 90 very difficult minutes in Spain. We will enjoy what happened tonight, but nothing more. It is important to stick to your tacticalguidelines against Barcelona and that is what makes my team stand out this year.”

Man-of-the-match Thomas Muller, who scored the first and fourthgoals as well as providing the assist for the second goal from Mario Gomez, said: “The way in which we beat them was superb – we gave everything. Everyone battled and rantheir hearts out. It was just the job. It’s no secret that we have a lot of quality going forward. We’ve had some big wins recently, but to beat them like this in a game of this magnitude is justbrilliant.” He added that there is still a job to do in Barcelona next Wednesday, “but things could certainly be worse.”

Winger Arjen Robben, who scoredthe third goal of the night, said: “It’s crazy and I can barely believe it. Barcelona have dominated Europe for the last five years. We can be very proud…We fought together and all workedback defensively. That was the key to the victory.”

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