For the second Real Madrid game in a row, "olé" rang round the stadium. First at Montilivi, then Wembley. And the poor players embarked on a futile pursuit of the ball, never quite getting there, always arriving a moment too late, watching it whisked away from them, forced to draw breath and, stung, keep on chasing.
But the poor players, who knew that the cause was lost and that the game was too, weren't Madrid's opponents. Not this time. This time they were Madrid's own. On the plane back from last Saturday's defeat at Girona, Sergio Ramos sat in the row behind his manager.