Germany 8 – 1 Spain

This wasn’t the scoreline in the last significant meeting between these two giants of international football.

This is the combined score line when the best of Germany’s club football teams took on the best of Spain’s football clubs.  Both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich both managed to score 4 goals each to set up first leg scorelines that have never been overhauled in Champions League history.

It looks like the Champions League final will be an all German affair for the first time.

Since the inception of the Champions League there has been one all Spanish final, one all Italian final and one all English final, but the Germans have never had the showpiece event all to themselves.

To have two teams in the final shows the strength of a country’s league.  The result is also significant as an indicator of the strength of each country’s national team too.

In 2008, a Fernando Torres goal was enough to defeat Germany in the Final of Euro 2008, and since then Spain have won the World Cup and a further European Championship. 

Going into Euro 2012, people believed that Germany would prove their biggest threat, and with the core of the German team destroying Barcelona, the core of the Spanish national team, there will be many who will see the Germans as the favourites for next year’s World Cup.

With German players like Schweinstager, Muller, Lahm, Kroos and Gomez playing key roles in an all conquering Bayern team, it looks like Bayern Munich’s success is likely to be linked with the national teams.  Robert Lewandowski may have dominated the game with his goals, but Borussia Dortmund also have a large German influence in their team.

It isn’t all over yet.  Real have scored an away goal.  Barcelona should have Lionel Messi back to full fitness for the return leg, and both the second legs are in Spain, but Germany could not have given any better demonstration of their leagues growing strength than they did this week.