BUSINESS LESSONS FROM BAYERN MUNICH VS BARCELONA SEMI-FINAL CHAMPIONS LEAGUE APRIL 23, 2013 THIS WAS THE

PERIOD WHEN BARCELONA WAS TERMED THE BEST CLUB IN THE WORLD PARADING THE BEST 11 IN THE WORLD. BUT THEY FELL. THEY WERE HUMILIATED.

They were physically very strong, said Xavi. In fact they were superior. We didnt create chances. Its a dreadful result. It looks practically impossible but we will look for a miracle at home. Barcelona were upset at some of the officiating during the game, particularly a perceived foul by Dante on Dani Alves in the build-up to Bayerns first, an offside for their second and a block by Thomas Mller on Jordi Alba for the third. No excuses, added Xavi afterwards. They have been the better team and we congratulate them. Thats football. Lionel Messi agreed. Bayern were the better team, in everything, said Barcelonas No 10, who has clearly not recovered from a recent hamstring problem. Theyre stronger, scored twice from set-pieces, every second ball was for them. Bayerns coach, Jupp Heynckes, put the stunning victory partly down to his meticulous preparation. Having said he would not need any advice on Barcelona from Pep Guardiola, Heynckes clearly enjoyed proving he could plot the dismantling of the team that Guardiola built. Guardiola succeeds Heynckes at the Allianz Arena at the end of this season. You have to analyse the team, how they will play, how the players move, where do they run to, how do they play in attack, said Heynckes. I did that. I analysed that. I had a PowerPoint presentation so I could see all the runs Barcelona do. Defensively we worked very hard and Barcelona couldnt do anything, they had one-and-a-half chances. You have to know the opponent and we did. What the boys did on the pitch, and the tactical way they played was fantastic. We played a fantastic game. The decisive factor was the organisation of the team, defending intelligently, every player was really happy to stay back and be good. We have a lot of creativity, quality and class when we are going forward. We have the space and use it and can beat any opponent. We tried to neutralise Messi and we did a great job in that. But Barcelona is not just Messi, they have Xavi and [Andrs] Iniesta and other very good players. But we dominated.

We have been playing at a very high level in the German Cup, theBundesliga and in the Champions League so it was no surprise to me that we played well. If you win 4-0 at home to Barcelona its fantastic. Asked whether this felt an end of an era for Barcelona, Heynckes said: They are still one of the best teams in the world. With Bayern, Dortmund and Real Madrid. All very strong teams. Heynckes played down suggestions that the pitch had been deliberately over-watered to negate Barcelonas passing game. Thats why it was quite difficult for us, he said. We had a pass to Thomas Mller and the ball stayed in a puddle! I thought: 'Oh, this is starting really well for us. A spokesman for Bayern Munich emphasised that they liaised with Uefa and Barcelona about how much the pitch should be watered before kick-off. Jordi Roura, the assistant to the Barcelona coach, Tito Vilanova, said: You can imagine the players are pretty depressed and down. It hurts. Now it will be very difficult to get through. "We played against an opponent who was very physical, very good. We lacked the freshness. We didnt get Messi into the game, he tried very hard, it was a great effort of his to be here. We can be proud he gave everything he could give but we just couldnt do any more.