The sight of a Champions League knockout stage without Barcelona is an unfamiliar one, with the Catalan club often a lock for the quarter-finals as a minimum.
However, as we watch the competition tick on without Xavi's side, it's hard not to cast our minds back to their surprise early elimination some 15 years ago.
Back then, Barca were the reigning European champions after late goals from Samuel Eto'o and Juliano Belletti saw them break Arsenal's resistance in the 2006 final.
After finishing second in their group behind Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, a last-16 meeting with Group C winners Liverpool was on the menu.
The task couldn't have been tougher, with Rafa Benitez's 2005 Champions League winners well adrift at the top of the Premier League by the time of the game, and events away from the pitch raised some questions regarding the Reds' togetherness.
However, when Craig Bellamy beat Victor Valdes and celebrated with a golf swing, it was clear those off-field events would not be forgotten in a hurry.
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Liverpool weren't in the best of form going into their first leg at Camp Nou.
After a goalless draw in the Merseyside Derby, they had thrown away an early lead to lose away at Newcastle and fall 16 points behind league leaders Manchester United.
An early elimination from the FA Cup was used to the Reds' advantage, with manager Benitez taking his squad on a five-day training camp to prepare for what was beginning to look like their only hope of silverware.
Things don't always go to plan, though, and the trip to Portugal ended up being marred by an incident involving Bellamy and John Arne Riise which quickly made its way to the back pages.
There are two sides to every story, though, and the nitty gritty of the events boils down to which of the two teammates you ask.
"That night at Vale do Lobo, I was sitting with Steve Finnan, who was my room-mate, Sami Hyypia and Ginge [Riise]," Bellamy recalled in his autobiography.
"I told Ginge he had to sing a song. I might have said it a couple of times. He said he didn’t want to do it.
"I mentioned it again and he snapped. He got s****y about it. He got up and started shouting. 'Listen,” he yelled, “I’m not singing and I’ve had enough of you banging on about it.'
"Sami told me to ignore him and Ginge left fairly soon afterwards. But as the evening wore on and I had more to drink, it started eating away at me."
Bellamy admitted he is "one of the worst people on drink," and this was laid bare later in the night, despite Finnan's best efforts to talk his teammate out of it.
He admitted to giving Riise "just a thwack" on the backside with a golf club, saying "If I’d taken a proper swing, I would have hit the ceiling with my backlift".
“'You ever speak to me like that in front of people again,' I told [Riise], 'I will wrap this round your head'," he wrote.
"I look back at what I did now and I cringe.
"It was pathetic. It was stupidity of the highest level. It was drunken, bullying behaviour."
The Welshman was later called in for a meeting with Benitez and assistant manager Pako Ayesteran and given a dressing-down, but your opinion of his part in the incident might depend on whether you believe Bellamy's version of events or the one told years later by Riise.
There appears to be some agreement on the singing dispute, but Riise's own autobiography - an extract of which was published in the Guardian - deviates when it comes to the golf club incident.
"I woke in the dark to hear someone opening the door," the Norwegian wrote.
"Obviously I thought it was [roommate Daniel] Agger. I turned, but my eyes were half-asleep, and I didn’t see anything in the sudden, bright glare. But something made me realise that it wasn’t Agger. And soon I could see him – Craig Bellamy at the foot of my bed with a golf club in his hands.
"Steve Finnan, who shared a room with Bellamy, was there too, but he just stood there. Bellamy raised the club over his head and swung as hard as he could. He tried to hit my shins, which would have ended my career, but I managed to pull my leg away in time."
According to Riise, the row continued after that first swing, and it was only then that Bellamy hit him.
"He raised the club and swung again. This time he connected. Full force on my hip. I was so pumped with adrenaline that I didn’t feel the pain, but he hit me hard. It was an iron," he wrote.
"The next blow smashed into my thigh. I tried to hold up the sheet, but he continued to strike. He could seriously injure me. At the same time, I knew I could take Bellamy if I needed to. I was bigger and stronger."
The bad blood didn't disappear when the Reds' squad travelled to Catalunya, and memories of the clash were still at the forefront of the players' minds, but that didn't matter when Liverpool took to the pitch with both men named in Benitez's starting XI.
When Deco put the hosts in front with one of a number of early chances, a third game without victory was very much on the cards, but it was Bellamy who found a way through when Victor Valdes made a hash of his header.
Would he celebrate in a restrained fashion? Of course not.
Out came a mock golf swing, in a moment which ensured we would still be talking about the hotel incident 15 years later.
"I thought it was fucking disrespectful," Riise reflected.
"The celebration also revealed the sincerity of his apology."
Still, even if the animosity remained, the pair were still teammates with the same goal in mind, and it was Bellamy who supplied Riise to blast home the winning goal less than 20 minutes from time.
Barca got one of the two goals they needed in the return leg at Anfield, but the damage had been done.
Two men who could have easily come to blows just days earlier had knocked the champions out of Europe.
The events at Camp Nou very nearly spurred Liverpool to more European glory.
PSV Eindhoven were brushed aside in the quarter-finals, while Chelsea also tasted defeat after a penalty shootout at Anfield in the semis.
This time though, it wasn't to be. AC Milan took their chances in a way Barca couldn't in the last 16, and Pippo Inzaghi's double ensured the Italians were able to avenge their 2005 defeat in Istanbul.
As for Bellamy and Riise? Well, both men were gone within 18 months - Bellamy to West Ham and Riise to Fulham.
Still, 15 years after the events, there's a clear idea of what went down... even if we do still have two competing versions.
