Barcelona vs Bayern Munich: Xavi Admits Bayern Were Clearly Superior in the Champions League Semifinals; Fabregas Making No Excuses For Huge Defeat

May 01, 2013 11:39 PM EDT
Gerard Pique Victor Valdes Barcelona
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique and Victor Valdes are disappointed after the former's own goal against Bayern Munich in their Champions League semifinal second leg, May 1"

 

Barcelona were left stunned by the dominance of Bayern Munich in the Champions League semifinal tie and the likes of Xavi Hernandez and Cesc Fabregas acknowledged they had lost to the far better side.

Arjen Robben opened the scoring early in the first half at the Camp Nou, before an own goal from Gerard Pique and a header from Thomas Muller gave Bayern a 7-0 aggregate victory, a win which Xavi believes was fully deserved.

"They dominate almost every facet of football and we have to congratulate them," he said.

"Warm congratulations to Bayern. Brilliant football! Bayern were more competitive than us today (Wednesday).

"We didn't play well, so we have to look very hard at ourselves and improve. Bayern were clearly superior. Best of luck for the final."

Pique, who had trouble stopping the Bayern attackers over two legs, said even Lionel Messi could not have changed the course of the match if he had been available - Messi was left on the bench for the entire 90 minutes by Tito Vilanova.

"It doesn't feel good when this happens, we didn't have a bad first half but when they scored their first in the second half, it made the remaining 45 minutes very difficult," Pique said.

"We gave it all we had. Now it's time to focus on La Liga, finish it off as soon as possible and then think about next season

"It's not the same without Leo but that didn't influence the match, the result would have been similar."

Fabregas, who filled in for Messi from the start, also could not do much for his side, with Bayern as effective defensively as they were in attack.

"They are lethal on the counter," the former Arsenal skipper said. "We would have preferred to go to the break with a goal, but the 0-0 wasn't bad. Robben's goal really made it difficult.

"We went up against a very strong Bayern, their counters with (Franck) Ribery and Robben were very hard to stop. But we are Barca, we don't make excuses.

"The players are hurt, we have to react and win La Liga as soon as possible.

"We can't give up. We lost the tie in Germany, that result really influenced the match. If we could have scored one or two goals early, it would have changed everything."

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