Who can stop us??

(From WorldSoccerNews.com)

Barcelona's stunning 4-1 win over Racing Santander will have sent shock waves throughout the rest of Spanish first division.

Racing, despite their lowly position, had one of the meanest defences in the Spanish first division but Barca found as little resistance from them as they had against Champions League opponents Panathinaikos and Werder Bremen and bitter domestic rivals Real Madrid.

The reigning Spanish champions' statistics this season are frightening.

Frank Rijkaard's men have now won their last six league games and the Catalan club have only scored less than three goals in one of their last nine Champions League and La Liga outings.

"We never know what our limit is," said Barca's Dutch coach after their latest victory, praising his team after a display of total football which mirrored the famous generation of Johann Cruyff.

However, Rijkaard's team is not being compared to the Barcelona of Cruyff's playing days in the mid-1970s but his time as a coach in the 1990s.

Cruyff established Barca's Dream Team which won five consecutive Spanish titles and also took the 1992 European Cup, which is still their only triumph in Europe's top club competition.

"The last 20 minutes were not so good, but that's only a minor detail," added Rijkaard.

"However, let's not get too carried away with all the euphoria. We still have to be very serious and carry on working because we don't want to crash."

The key to Barca's success is their phenomenal front line.

Not only is Cameroon international striker Samuel Eto'o the Spanish first division's top scorer with 12 goals to his name in 13 matches but they also have the second most prolific man in the shape of Ronaldinho, the World Player of the Year having found the net nine times.

Backing up the pair is the speedy Portuguese winger Deco and the Argentine teenage phenomenon Lionel Messi, whose bewitching speed and skill has already reduced many defences to shreds.

Messi, still only 18, is often talked about as the new Maradona.

Perhaps the last word in testimony to how good Barca are becoming should belong to the coach of their latest victims, Racing.

"This is a special team. The only thing I can do is congratulate them after a game like this when one team is so superior to the other," said Racing's awestruck Manuel Preciado.