Champions of the World

Barcelona defender Dani Alves and Santos defender Edu Dracena vie for the ball during Sunday's match.

Everyone knew it but now it's official: Barcelona are the greatest club team in the world. On Sunday theythrashed 痛击the Brazilian side Santos 4-0 in the final of the Fifa Club World Cup in Yokohama, Japan.

The tournamentpitsthe winners of the continental championshipsagainst(pits... against)两队交锋one another to find the best club team in the world. Earlier in the year, Barcelona were crowned Champions League winners, while Santos won the Copa Libertadores.

Many were expecting atrue clash of the titans两个巨人队之间的决赛with this match, which brought together the man widelyregarded as被视为the greatest player in the world – Lionel Messi – and theup-and-coming崭露头角的young Brazilian star Neymar.

But in the endit was no contest并非激战: although Neymar had chances it was Messi who scored twice and was named the most valuable player in the Fifa Club World Cup. Xavi and Fabregas also shared in the glory, scoring a goalapiece每人进一球。

Neymar himself was quick to admit they had lostfair and square公平合理地。 "Barcelona deserved to win," he said after the match. "They are the best team in the world and we learned an important lesson."

The BBC's blogger on South American soccer, Tim Vickery, agreed with Neymar's assessment. He wrote: "There is much that Brazil cantake from汲取经验Barcelona - which does not meanslavishly奴隶般地，死板地copying something from outside."

He believes that Brazilian football has beenresting on its laurels坐在功劳簿上吃老本for too long and needs to renew its interest in "intelligent,collective集体的midfield play".

But for those who saw Barca'sclinical 冷静彻底地demolition of Santos on Sunday, there was a certain joy in watching the beautifulsupremacy最高境界of the world's greatest football starsin their element最精湛的。

As Tim Vickery put it: "Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and Lionel Messiran rings round把对方耍的团团转Santos as if the Brazilians were traffic cones in a training exercise."