Spanish giants rocked by Bundesliga beatings

MADRID (AFP) –

Bayern Munich’s midfielder Thomas Mueller (2dR) celebrates scoring a goal with teammates striker Mario Gomez (L) and French midfielder Franck Ribery (C) during the UEFA champions league semi against Barcelona on April 23, 2013 in Munich, Germany. For two huge clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid’s experiences against Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund has been humbling.

Two nights, two hammerings, and eight goals conceded. For two huge clubs so used to getting everything their own way, Barcelona and Real Madrid’s experience against Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the past week has been a humbling one.

Given the Bundesliga‘s rise in exposure it is not even the German duo’s ability to beat Barca and Madrid that has shocked the system as much as the manner of the defeats.

And despite the Spanish duo’s very different styles, both thrashings have come about thanks to a physical deficiency they thought could be overcome with technical superiority.

“Physically they are better; they are stronger, taller. They knew this and took advantage of it,” Barca midfielder Xavi said after Bayern’s 4-0 romp on Tuesday.

“Dortmund are a team that press a lot and run excessively,” was Madrid captain Iker Casillas’ assessment after his side’s similarly comprehensive 4-1 thrashing 24 hours later.

That German teams should be strong, physical, hard-working is nothing new.

The added quality they now have to aid those traditional characteristics is obvious, but there is also a sense that years of wear and tear are catching up with some players on either side of the Madrid-Barca divide.

This golden era of Spanish football dates back to 2008 and the first of their recent European Championship wins which included nine current Madrid and Barca players.

Fittingly, it was Germany they beat in the final with an exhibition of pass and move football which gave birth to the term tiqui-taca football.

Barca then went on to sweep all before them the following season, beating Bayern 4-0 in the first-leg of the Champions League quarter-finals on the way. It was their passing that caught the eye, but their pressing under Pep Guardiola was intense and effective, winning possession back quickly for the passing carousel to start again.

In the four years since Barca have always reached the Champions League semi-finals, Madrid have done so for the past three seasons and Spain have gone all the way in the World Cup and retained their European Championship crown.

Tiredness and, most importantly, injuries have started to take their toll. Barca were handicapped by the absence of captain Carles Puyol, while Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi played when clearly not 100%.

Xavi himself has only started one league game since February and looked incapable of dealing with the power and dynamism of Bayern’s midfield duo of Javi Martinez and Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Similarly Real’s Xabi Alonso suffered a harrowing evening at Signul Iduna Park on Wednesday with Santi Segurola of Madrid sports daily Marca calling it his worst performance since joining Los Blancos nearly four years ago.

Dortmund made the former Liverpool man look cumbersome and slow, culminating in his 68th minute barge into the back of Marco Reus for the penalty which led to Dortmund’s fourth goal.

Jurgen Klopp’s side by contrast buzzed around all night pressing, hassling and springing forward on the counter-attack. Moreover, with an average age of just 25, the side that started against Madrid would seem to have a very promising future, although the sale of Mario Gotze and possibly Robert Lewandowski to Bayern could cause unrepairable damage.

Whilst talk about the Bundesliga being the new power base of European football may be premature, there is no doubt that Spain’s stranglehold has been weakened over the past week.

Madrid boss Jose Mourinho gave the idea a frosty reception at his post-match press conference on Wednesday, claiming “the overall picture cannot be judged by one match”.

But even if this does turn out just to have been a magic week for Germany rather than a changing of the guard, it should ensure they have the stage to themselves at Wembley on May 25 to show that 2013 was definitively the Bundesliga’s year.