PARIS, FRANCE -- Twenty-four hours earlier, Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique had raised his hand up high to indicate just what dizzying levels his team -- who won the Treble last season, lest we forget -- had reached, adding that PSG were "the best in the world."
Bayern Munich boss Vincent Kompany made no such pronouncements, but maybe he felt he didn't need to. His team are on course for a Treble of their own and had lost just twice all season long.
We all knew that Tuesday's match was going to be a blockbuster. If the European game had a Top 25 poll, like college football, PSG and Bayern would be first and second, in whatever order you prefer.
What we didn't know was that it was going to turn into one of the most epic, back-and-forth slugfests in recent memory, the sort of match that could rival the legendary clash between Manchester United and Real Madrid in 2003 (the Ronaldo hat trick, David Beckham coming off the bench to score twice, Roman Abramovich in the stands deciding then and there that he needed to buy a football club to make his life complete...). In the end, two of the world's best sides delivered a historic performance with PSG edging the Champions League semifinal first leg 5-4 at the Parc des Princes.
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PSG fans had set the scene pre-match with a typically over-the-top French Revolution-themed tifo. A giant banner framed in gold depicting blue-uniformed soldiers standing above a helpless red-clad infantryman set against a war-torn hellscape. It was a cue for the home fans to start singing the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, with its references to "blood-soaked banners" and enemies coming "to slit your throats" and exhorting their foes to "water our furrows" with their "impure blood."
Those goosebumps wouldn't be the last we'd experience. Whether it was the intricacy with which Bayern found Luis Díaz in the box (where he'd win the penalty that Harry Kane converted for the opener) or the way Khvicha Kvaratskhelia made Josip Stanisic dance like a puppet on a string, conjuring up just enough space to stroke the ball into the far corner for the equalizer this was merely the beginning.
And while the fearsomely precise technique of the aforementioned players and the likes of Michael Olise, Désiré Doué, Ousmane Dembélé will make the highlight reels and do the rounds on social media, what struck you just as much being privileged enough to witness it was the sheer, relentless athleticism on display.