The result of Wednesday night’s game was completely incidental just as soon as Inter Milan had taken the lead in the earlier kick-off against Viktoria Plzen.
It says much for the conviction that culers had in Xavi’s project that a near capacity crowd still turned up for what was always going to be a dead rubber.
There was still pride to play for after all. The badge. The fans. Their places.
More than enough reason for every player in a Barcelona shirt to put in a performance worthy of this European behemoth, not another meek Champions League surrender.