Barcelona could be four points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga by late Sunday afternoon, and by 11pm the difference could be back to a single point and a game in hand for the club from Madrid, another epic title fight going down to the wire.

The week belonged to Barcelona and that Champions League comeback against Paris St-Germain – so monumental that Michael Owen fired up those once-famous fast-twitch muscles to run around a BT Sports studio. Elsewhere there was such an appetite to relive the moment of Sergi Roberto’s sixth goal that even the gallery footage of the Spanish television match director picking the cameras shots of those astonishing final minutes was broadcast.

As he calls out the numbers of the cameras in turn, showing the viewers the different scenes of triumph and despair, you sensed a man who knew he was conducting the world’s view of a match it would never forget. Like the great movie director who demands the camera keeps rolling to capture that unscripted moment of truth, this was his masterpiece.

The epic story of Barcelona and Real Madrid continues. For all their rich 20th century history there is a strong case for saying that this is the greatest era, and never mind those five Real Madrid European Cups from 1956 to 1960, or Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona years. Those were the memorable early efforts, but the current day feels ever more like a never-to-be-repeated peak, a defining Sgt Pepper’s of football that will stand the test of time.