It was a night when we went to bed with an indelible little smile, when the dramaturgy of the match snatched cries and onomatopoeia from the most stoic of football fans and when the Champions League was once again a reminder of how great it was. addictive and possessed the capacity to embellish our weeks when it presents itself in this way.
Manchester City and Real Madrid offered all of Europe a superb football match and the score (4-3) says it all about the show debauchery but not about the British superiority in this first act.
But to cross the Channel again with hope, the Spaniards have shown that to bury them, even several blows of a shovel to the skull and a ton of earth are not enough.
Manhandled by PSG in the round of 16, on the brink of elimination in the quarter against Chelsea, the most successful team in the history of the competition this time managed to survive a suffocating meeting where many in Europe would have sunk and spent the rest of the game counting the minutes on the Etihad Stadium clock.
Benzema, top scorer in the Champions League
It's not the English side's fault for trying to wrap things up very quickly.
The Citizens started by reciting their football, cornering their opponents and above all scoring quickly.
Kevin de Bruyne barely gave viewers time to finish their dessert by scoring after less than two minutes (1-0, 2nd) before the Belgian, on his own a good reason to turn on the television, served Gabriel Jesus for the break (2-0, 13th).
But the mechanics got a little jammed and Pep Guardiola's men made the mistake of never finally dropping Real, which came back in the game thanks to a goal from its inevitable captain, Karim Benzema (2-1, 33rd) .
To sum up, this was the story of the rest of this game.
Foden revives the Mancunians at the start of the second period (3-1, 53rd)?
Vinicius tumbles like a ball and comes to extinguish the cries of joy from the stands (3-2, 55th).
Bernardo Silva delights with a superb strike in the top corner of a dumbfounded Courtois (4-2, 74th)?
Benzema comes quietly to register his penalty, with a panenka full of composure (4-3, 82nd).
Now top scorer in the Champions League with 14 goals this season, the Frenchman and his partners are still alive and have weathered the storm to guarantee us suspense for the return in a week to Spain.
The time for campaign promises is behind us, but if someone promised to speed up the time to get us there, it would be hard not to vote for him.