Madrid - The Spanish media was full of praise on Wednesday for Barcelona, after the previous day's impressive 2-0 home win over Inter Milan in the Champions League. The headline in Catalan daily Mundo Deportivo was "Grandioso!" and rival daily Sport said "Here Are The Champions!"
Barca needed to beat the Italians in order to avoid the possibility of being the first defending champions to fail to reach the knockout stage of the elite event the following season.
They did so thanks to a sensational first-half display that recalled their flowing football of last season - and that was crowned by goals from youth products Gerard Pique and Pedro Rodriguez.
Remarkably, this was achieved without star strikers Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, both out with muscle problems.
Barca are now top of Group F with eight points from five games, and probably will only need a draw in their last game, away to Dynamo Kiev, in order to finish top.
Mundo Deportivo was full of praise for Barca coach Josep Guardiola, claiming that he won the "tacticial battle" against Inter boss Jose Mourinho by pressing the Inter defenders so insistently that the Italians could hardly get out of their own penalty area, let alone their own half.
Sport, for its part, said that "we have a coach who is doing a wonderful job with a squad that is a little thin...How lucky we are!"
Guardiola had raised eyebrows before the match by leaving Messi and Ibrahimovic on the subs' bench, and fielding Eric Abidal despite the Frenchmen having been in bed for a week with swine flu.
According to Barcelona paper La Vanguardia on Wednesday, Guardiola "has again showed his courage and wisdom."
Catalan language television channel TV-3 said that Messi and Ibrahimovic will now "be in good condition" for Sunday's "Clasico" league topper at home to frontrunners Real Madrid.
Madrid papers AS and Marca were also full of praise for Barca on Wednesday.
Alfredo Relano, editor of AS, compared Inter to a "bag of balls in a training session." He also made the point that "when you see Barca play like this, you ask yourself how Madrid can be ahead of them."
