A club's pursuit of the Champions League trophy is usually an unabashed romance. It represents the pinnacle of the European club game.
It is the prize that players covet more than any other, something that confers greatness even on those previously considered ordinary. It is the trophy that marks Real Madrid out as the biggest club in the world and Liverpool as the most storied club in this country.
It is the trophy — in its former incarnation as the European Cup, too — that has bestowed its own kind of immortality on teams such as Celtic, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea.