Spanish asking just how good Barcelona can become (Feature)

By Duncan Shaw Dec 19, 2010, 10:34 GMT

Madrid - One particular questioned dominated the newspapers across Spain on Sunday: just how good can Pep Guardiola's Barca become?

Barca's 5-1 destruction of neighbours Espanyol on Saturday is front-page news in every Spanish paper on Sunday, with sub-editors running out of superlatives with which to describe Guardiola's side.

One of the headlines in Catalan daily Sport was 'Another Exhibition Of Play And Intensity' - inside Guardiola's team was described as a 'perfect machine' - while Madrid daily AS opted for 'Nobody Can Stop This Barca.'

Mundo Deportivo, for its part, pointed out that it was not just the result that captured the attention of the watching world but the sheer quantity of clear chances, around 17, that Barca created in Espanyol's much-feared Cornella-Prat stadium.

Until Saturday Espanyol had won all their league games in their new ground and were fourth in La Liga. Their recent results against Barca had been good and therefore a tough match was predicted.

Instead, Barca cruised to yet another impressive win, their 10th consecutive league triumph, creating chance after chance with their speed of thought and movement.

As usual, playmaker Xavi was the dance master, scoring one of the goals and setting up two others. Barca's tactical flexibility was shown by Lionel Messi playing as a withdrawn centre-forward rather than on the right wing, and the little Argentine took advantage to set up three of the goals.

According to Catalan radio station RAC-1, Guardiola gave another master class by pressing Espanyol strongly in the first half, hardly permitting them to cross the halfway line, but then playing on the counter-attack in the second-half, when his team was ahead, allowing Espanyol to come forward - then hitting them lethally on the break.

Catalan television channel TV-3, for its part, called Guardiola's side 'possibly the best football team ever', then asked 'is there really a limit for this team, in terms of performance and results?'

There was a general consensus on Sunday that the 'Pep Team', as it is known, is still improving, and that it is even more lethal than when it won all six trophies at stake in 2009.

Since 2009, little winger Pedro has taken wing - he scored two against Espanyol - Messi has become even more effective, and David Villa, another two-goal hero on Saturday, has made the fans forget all about Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thierry Henry.

Online polls taken by Sport and Mundo Deportivo show that most readers believe Barca will not only retain the Liga title but also win the Champions League again.

Barca are five points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga - the whites were due to take on Sevilla on Sunday - having scored a remarkable 51 goals in 16 games.

Three weeks ago, Messi and company humiliated Real 5-0 in front of a delighted Camp Nou.

Barca president Sandro Rosell commented after the Espanyol romp: 'This Barca is a machine that doesn't stop, and we hope this continues for many years. We have some marvellous players and a coach who is a tactical expert...To see them play like this is a real pleasure.'

The only sour note amidst all this praise for Barca came on Sunday from Madrid daily Marca, which is very close - to say the least - to Real president Florentino Perez.

Marca is even more obsessed than rival daily AS about alleged refereeing favours for Barca.

While the rest of the media was singing the praises of the 'Pep team', Marca sourly commented that there could have been a foul just before Barca's first goal - and that the second goal might have been offside.

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