Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller was in astonishing form against Barcelona this week.The 2019/20 season has marked an exponential rise in form for a player who looked to have past his prime at the Allianz Arena, but boy has he proven everybody wrong in recent months.Muller was named the Man of the Match in an 8-2 annihilation of Barcelona that will go down in the history books, sending the Bavarians through to the Champions League semi-finals.
Muller shines vs Barcelona
The 30-year-old opened the scoring after just four minutes with a brilliant left-footed strike and bagged his second just before half-time by arriving at the near post to finish.
Combine that with strikes from Ivan Perisic, Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich, Robert Lewandowski and a brace from Philippe Coutinho for one of European football's craziest ever nights.
However, back to Muller for a second, because the broadcasters present in Lisbon were unsurprisingly keen to catch up with the star performer after his incredible display.
Muller's post-match interview
And if you've ever seen an interview from Muller in the past, you'll know that he's brilliant value for money and it was class seeing him stood as smug as can be in the mixed zone.
As well as making light of how much fun the Bayern players had in trouncing Barcelona, he also showed the mindset of a champion with how he's planning to react to the 8-2 win.
Per the Independent, Muller told BT Sport: "In this moment, how I feel... it's an incredible [feeling].
"Thank you for man of the match, but we have 12-15 players who deserve this as well. We worked so hard, had so much intensity for everyone out there. We had so much fun today together.
Having 'fun' vs Barcelona
"When somebody presses, the next guy has to come and we kept the ball. We have so much talent in the offensive line. This is good, you can imagine how it feels, it was very special for us after this match.
"But we have to recover. It's a big statement but the next game, it starts 0-0. It doesn't matter. I know the other teams watch our games and we have to win the next game to reach the final. We have to be quiet, calm, relaxed and very happy.
"Tomorrow morning, when we wake up and answer the messages from home and the world, we have to focus on the semi-finals.
"I know this tournament a lot, and most of the time - after these big wins - it's more difficult [to win again]. So we have to perform."
GIVEMESPORT's Kobe Tong says
Cor, you've just got to love Muller. I could watch his interviews all day long.
It's impressive that he clearly gets in a few cheeky jibes, most notably passing comment about how much 'fun' Bayern had, while also showing an elite mentality by turning his attention to the semi-finals.
Making the point that it can be harder to maintain focus after a massive win is incredibly shrewd and Barcelona are actually a fantastic case in point when it comes to the Champions League.
It's easy to forget that the Blaugrana were tidily eliminated from Europe 3-0 on aggregate against Juventus in 2016/17 despite having completed the legendary PSG comeback the round before.
But as for Muller, his own tactic clearly works because after helping Germany to a 7-1 thrashing of Brazil six years ago, he just happened to back that up by winning the World Cup in his next game.
Manchester City or Lyon, you better brace yourselves.
