There are levels to sport and no tournament puts teams in their place quite like the UEFA Champions League. In last night's Round of 16 game, Bayern Munich, the reigning champions of club football, took on Lazio, a side trying to establish a foothold in the European footballing landscape.

The phrase "men against boys" is too insulting to describe how the game played out. Lazio are a fine team with a good manager and an incredibly talented striker in Ciro Immobile. At the same time, Bayern are simply the best right now and it takes a lot more than what Lazio have to mount a real challenge.

Perhaps its a consequence of the game taking place behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic but this had the feeling of a friendly game from the opening whistle. Bayern came out and did what they always do – press up the right, absorb down the left – and on a man-to-man, positional, tactical and whole team level, are so good at what they do that Lazio never really stood a chance.

They didn’t help themselves. In the 10th minute, Mateo Mussachio played a slow pass back to veteran goalkeeper Pepe Reina; Robert Lewandowski intercepted, rounded Reina and tapped it in to make it 1-0 early.

Key players like Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry and Corentin Tolisso are currently unavailable for Bayern. It didn't seem to matter as the Germans had the advantage all over the pitch. Even when Lazio did mount an attack, they were swallowed up without much fuss.

Around the 20th minute, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic claimed a penalty after tangling with Bayern's Jerome Boateng on the edge of the box. The referee waved it off and replays showed there wasn't much in it, however the claims from Lazio showed how being overwhelmed by Bayern was affecting their mental state already.

Not even five minutes later, Bayern made it 2-0 through a goal from 17-year-old Jamal Musiala. He's been a hot prospect throughout his tie with the Southampton and Chelsea youth systems; to score in a Champions League knockout game in such stellar fashion shows the hype is justified.

He got the ball outside the penalty area from Leon Goretzka, saw Reina was a step too far to his left and drilled it down low to his right.

It looked too easy going forward and wasn't much harder going back either. Simone Inzaghi's five-man midfield is supposed to give Lazio a total semi-circle of angles to attack from. Instead, it looked like a bubble surrounding the Bayern defense.

Wingbacks Alphonso Davies and Niklas Sule stayed back while Boateng and the departing David Alaba moved forward to join deep midfielders Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich. To create a six person defensive perimeter that forced Lazio out to the edge and forced them to cross in.

By the end of the half, Lazio looked frustrated and Bayern's Leroy Sane capitalized on a clunky Reina stop to make it 3-0 at the break. The half time may as well not have happened as another mistake two minutes into the second half made it 4-0 for Bayern; Francesco Azerbi conceded an own goal stopping an early Bayern attack.

With this much of a lead and total dominance all over the pitch, it's easy for a team to switch off and that's what happened only two minutes later. Joaquin Correa ran into the Bayern box, surrounded by defenders who surrounded him but didn't actually close him down and he curled it past goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to claim one back.

It was a great piece of individual skill and the exception that proved how good Lazio can be, this is what they’re capable of when they aren't against Bayern Munich.

The winning mentality of Bayern was evinced by their response to the goal. Judging by the body language of the Bayern players involved, conceding was something between a moral loss and a silly mistake. From there, they snapped back into it and shut the game down.

Their main focus became tracking back to prevent anymore Italian magic and they only pressed when Lazio gave them space. 4-1 away was a good enough result for Bayern and they kept it that way to the final whistle.

(Header: Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala celebrates scoring with teammate Leroy Sane after scoring the second goal in his team's 4-1 UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg win over Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, February 23, 2021. /Getty)