The slap of Liverpool caused a devastating effect in a club that had an impeccable season. The team was received yesterday with warmth, whistles and empty seats at the Camp Nou. Coutinho is the particular Bale in the Barca imaginary and even an exemplary type, like Rakitic, was urged to be in the wrong place at an inopportune moment, like the Feria de Sevilla, 24 hours after the disaster. Valverde, prudence with legs in the field and outside the field, is also in question. That, that it was seen. Inside, the disappointment and the sense of failure is of such magnitude that the debate of the people of Barcelona is whether to place the night of Anfield over the final against Steaua in the ranking of calamities. Simultaneously, in Madrid the elimination of Tuesday was celebrated as the first title of the second Zidane Era. If the Camp Nou reacted so coldly, what else could be expected from a hobby that has the Champions as a vice? At least, Zizou had the bullshit shame to put things in their place. Not only was it not his first title, but he certified, with elegance, that Madrid’s season has been a disaster. But surely the impact of his words on the staff was null. Four Champions in a lustrum, seeing the state of devastation that Barça lives, despite their Leagues, their Cups and Messi, fill the Real Madrid. It is not necessary for Tezanos to do a survey.

GUARDIOLA AND THE PREMIER

The impact of the European Cup reaches even Guardiola. His league record is impressive, with nine titles of 11 possible – including that of Barça B -, a level of play and an overwhelming point production. And yet he has to live with the reproach: he has not managed to win the Champions League either with Bayern or the City, swimming in the abundance of templates made with euros and petrodollars at the tip of the shovel. The Premier that yesterday won Guardiola is a competitive barbarity for the height of his great rival, Liverpool, and the regularity demanded in a championship that has not given truce. While Barça have been able to manage their advantage almost at will, due to the resignation of Madrid and Atlético, City have won, to give just one example, their last 14 games, to the voracity of Klopp and his boys in pursuit. Brutal.

THE ACCOUNTING

England may be the only place in which their national championship is still more important than the Champions. By tradition, mentality and organization. But football moves towards the immediate, the shocking, the effervescent, the decisive in a fast-paced back and forth. So much so that there is someone who has left until the group stage. Given the laboriousness and complexity of nine league months, the Champions offers a very high level of competitiveness and its own codes that not all teams are capable of unraveling. Madrid does it like nobody else. This week, with the behavior of the vanquished and the rivals of the vanquished, we have witnessed a whole sociological phenomenon. What is more important? The League or the Champions? One would say both. But nobody like a Barça fan to answer with certainty that question …