Barcelona prove you can win with style

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Fans of Liverpool, Manchester United and Inter Milan might think so, but for me, no other club can match the Blaugrana.

Barca cruised to another victory Wednesday, crushing Bayern Munich 4-0 at the Camp Nou in the first leg of their Champions league quarter-final series.

Lionel Messi and his co-horts toyed with Bayern, ripping the Bavarians to shreds with their quick movement, penetrating runs and relentless attacking play.

Their destruction of Bayern was a stunning exhibition of artistic skill that bordered on the sublime. Barca mopped up the floor with the Germans, totally dominating the Bundesliga champions with a clinical display of expert passing, exquisite ball control and "Total Football."

While watching Barca continually swarm and dismantle Bayern from the comfort of my sofa, I couldn't help but feel the Spaniards would score every time they ventured forward and got a sniff of the German' penalty box.

And they nearly did.

United, Liverpool and Inter dominate their opponents, but Barca sidesteps the opposition all together, a point proved with Wednesday's victory, as Bayern was never in the game and the result was never in doubt.

With one foot in the semifinals and six points ahead of second-place Real Madrid in la Liga, Barcelona are a good bet to win "the double."

Good for them.

Barcelona's metoric ascension to the top of European club soccer this season is a testament to their creative genius, and demonstrates that winning and playing attractive, attacking soccer are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Soccer is a results business and too often teams just think about the final objective. Winning is the bottom line for most of the world's top clubs, with little or no bother paid to how they go about doing it.

But Barcelona is different.

They believe an ugly win is no win at all – victories must be earned through creativity, and entertainment must be provided for the legions of fans who pack into the Camp Nou each week.

Barcelona has reminded me and millions of fans around the world why the call soccer the "beautiful game."

And for that, we should all be eternally grateful.

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