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

The tournament pits the winners of the continental championships against (pits... against)兩隊交鋒 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 a true clash of the titans 兩個巨人隊之間的決賽 with this match, which brought together the man widely regarded as 被視為 the greatest player in the world – Lionel Messi – and the up-and-coming 嶄露頭角的 young Brazilian star Neymar.

But in the end it was no contest 并非激戰: 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 goal apiece 每人進一球。

Neymar himself was quick to admit they had lost fair 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 can take from 汲取經驗 Barcelona - which does not mean slavishly 奴隸般地，死板地 copying something from outside."

He believes that Brazilian football has been resting on its laurels 坐在功勞簿上吃老本 for too long and needs to renew its interest in "intelligent, collective 集體的 midfield play".

But for those who saw Barca's clinical 冷靜徹底地 demolition of Santos on Sunday, there was a certain joy in watching the beautiful supremacy 最高境界 of the world's greatest football stars in their element 最精湛的。

As Tim Vickery put it: "Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and Lionel Messi ran rings round 把對方耍的團團轉 Santos as if the Brazilians were traffic cones in a training exercise."