And they deserved it. It was a great match for the first 50 minutes or so, but at that point the Catalans possession advantage started to pay off.
What's next for Barcelona? They are a fairly young team overall. Valdes is 29, Busquets is 22, and Pique is 24. Dani Alves is 28, but still has a few seasons left as one of the top right backs in the world. Javier Mascherano seems to have been around forever, but he is still only 26. Carlos Puyol is 33, and Eric Abidal is 31, both are at the tail ends of their careers, but neither is all that important to Barcelona at this point. The defense looks to be in great shape going forward.
Barcelona play a 4-3-3, and they use three legitimate forwards up top. Those forwards are chosen from David Villa (29), Lionel Messi (23), Pedro (23), Ibrahim Affelay (25), and Maxwell (29). This is probably the best attack in the world, and will remain so for several years.
This brings us to the midfield, the one place where Barcelona may have some issues. Everything they do is orchestrated by Xavi and Iniesta. Iniesta is only 27, but Xavi is 31, and both, between La Liga matches, Champions League, Copa del Rey, and international matches for Spain, play a lot of football.
Iniesta is already a little injury-prone, and that will only get worse as he ages. Xavi, as good as he has been , is not likely to stay at this level for more than 2 seasons. Euro 2012 could be his sort of last hurrah.
So hold out hope world, Barcelona may only be the best team on the planet for two more seasons.
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