Unai Emery has enjoyed too much success in Europe to listen to talk of glorious failure but. if there is such a thing, Aston Villa delivered it on a night of pure theatre at Villa Park.
Villa's Champions League odyssey ended with defeat by Paris St-Germain, but the manner in which they unnerved arguably the most impressive side in this season's competition demonstrated that they belonged in this elite company.
It has been 43 years since they were last in this competition, then as holders. It will not be as long again if they continue the progress under expert European operator Emery, who almost engineered yet another glory night to add to his stellar managerial CV.