Memory has a tendency to smooth over the edges, to conceal the blemishes, to dust over the pockmarks. Hindsight can be distorted, and history with it: Knowing how something ended creates the illusion it was always going to end that way, a narrative reverse-engineered from the bare facts, happenstance prettified to look like destiny.

And so Real Madrid — the Real Madrid of Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric, of Zinedine Zidane and Florentino Pérez — will be immortalized as the team that was champion of Europe for more than a thousand days, the first team since 1990 to repeat as European champions, the first since 1976 to win the European Cup three times in a row, the winner of four of the last five editions of club soccer’s most prestigious tournament.

It will be remembered as a team that built an empire and defined an era, a team that swept all before it right up until the point that a vibrant, fearless Ajax Amsterdam arrived at the Santiago Bernabéu and brought it all crashing down in one night, the Dutch team’s 4-1 victory in the last 16 on Tuesday sending Real Madrid out and shock waves around Europe.