After Pep Guardiola put down the European Cup, he immediately implored his players to embrace that feeling. The Catalan may have joked in his press conference about catching up with Real Madrid but he was deeply serious in private about now going on to retain the Champions League and win many more.
It wasn’t just the joy of victory that ran through the club in the early hours of Sunday morning, after all. It was the sense a psychological barrier had been broken. That has also meant we are in new territory for the game, as it faces a period of huge upheaval.
