For both Barcelona and Real Madrid, the legacy of a season born amid tumult, and defined by a manic reimagining of expectations, disappointment and potentially historical triumph hinges, for all intents and purposes, on a pair of upcoming Real Madrid outings – the first, tonight at Camp Nou, followed by the finale of the Champions League, on May 26, in Kiev.
From a Barcelona perspective, that so much of the meaning of this season – by all objective measures a successful one – rides on the failure of their eternal rival cannot be comforting.