It was going to be interesting to see how long in this thread before someone mentioned Zonal Marking.

It is interesting that the analysis doesn't mention Barcelona. That might be because reactive, kick long football has beaten Barca twice in Champion's League in the past 4 years. Mind you, Barca are one of the best club teams in the past 30 years at least.

Inter Milan and Chelsea had dramatically less of the possession and passing than the tikki-takka of Barca but both managed to get over the top of Barca.

A team's performance is also dependent on the personnel. The Barca core that is also the core of Spain and they are phenomenal. Who knows when another midfield like Xavi, Busquets and Ienesta (and Messi for Barca) will appear.

Or as someone said about Italy vs Spain, Spain won because they had 3 players at least as good Pirlo.