On a drive round Liverpool you see houses festooned with banners, flags and streamers: a Champions League version of Christmas, with space on the roof for the trophy the red half of Merseyside has every right to imagine in their team’s possession this weekend.

Liverpool’s fans were never slow to parade their allegiance, before, during or after big games. The bedecking of houses around Anfield and the Melwood training ground however has a different feel this time. This is not the ritual optimism of a nearly club. This is no underdog bark. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool are a ruthless winning machine. The players are at ease with each other, the staff are all cheerful and bright-eyed and the whole operation rolls into Madrid knowing that not much is beyond the scope of this formidable side.

Manchester City were, in the Premier League, but only because the champions amassed 98 points to Liverpool’s 97. At the same time Spurs piled up 13 defeats to Liverpool’s single loss: one of the reasons Klopp’s men are warm favourites to win a sixth European Cup on Saturday night. Tottenham’s comeback against Ajax in Amsterdam - heroic though it was - was not the greatest fightback of a seismic week. Liverpool 4 Barcelona 0 will take a lot of shifting as the best Lazarus impersonation of the modern age.