Media Reaction: End of an Era for Barca

• ESPN FC, Wednesday, April 24, 2013 12:53 PM

The reaction to Bayern Munich’s 4-0 drubbing of Barcelona in the first leg of its UEFA Champions League semifinal series in Germany was more or less uniform: soccer magazine Kicker called it “historic”, while German weekly Der Spiegel described it as the club’s “biggest exclamation mark this season.”

Perhaps Munich-based daily Abendzeitung summed it up best: "In the end, it was the Munich fans who finally humbled Barcelona. As though their team were leading against Hannover or Furth, thousands of spectators left the stadium way before the final whistle. They'd win it anyway. You rarely heard anyone mentioning [Lionel] Messi. Did he even play?"

Meanwhile, the Web site Spielverlagerung proclaimed it the end of an era for Barca: "This game could go down into history books as the downfall of one great team and the beginning of another."

In Spain, that sentiment was echoed by AS: "Every great team is condemned to vanish with a great defeat,” the Spanish daily wrote. “Barcelona lived yesterday such a cruel defeat at the Allianz Arena. Bayern, like a cyclone, swept them from the road to Wembley." Javier Estepa, columnist of Real Madrid-supporting Marca, likened it to Barca’s 4-0 defeat to AC Milan in the 1994 European Cup final: "That loss buried Johan Cruyff's 'Dream Team,'” he pointed out.

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