That night in Paris had the air of a final curtain. Barcelona would get a new coach this summer, and soon it would have to start thinking about bringing in some new players, too, ones not to serve as understudies to its stars, but to be trained as replacements. Three weeks before, Barcelona had not just seen its European campaign ended, but a chapter of its history closed.

Thirty minutes before, the message had been reinforced. For an hour in this second leg, there had been hope, at least, a willing suspension of disbelief. Suárez had scored in less than three minutes; Iniesta’s persistence had forced Layvin Kurzawa into an own goal just before halftime; Messi had converted a penalty kick just after it.

Barcelona needed just one more. The miracle was close enough to touch; hope transformed into belief. “Sí se puede, sí se puede,” the crowd chanted, borrowing from former President Obama and others before him. Yes we can, yes we can.

And then it was all snatched away. Barcelona started the night knowing that one mistake, one slip, one lapse in concentration would — should — prove fatal, with the away-goals rule. When it came, the punishment by Edinson Cavani, it was as if the air had been sucked from the stadium, as if thousands had been awaked from a dream; voices were muffled, flags fell to half-staff. That was it. Barcelona had 30 minutes to score three times. Barcelona was out.

What followed, as Enrique admitted, was “indescribable.” There had been a sense, in the buildup to this game, that if there was one team that might be able to overturn a 4-0 defeat, it was Barcelona. “While there is Messi, there is hope,” as the front pages of one of the city’s sports daily publications had it.

All of that, though, was predicated on the idea that Barcelona might score four, to force extra time and penalties, or five, without reply, to win outright. That was the impossible comeback. Scoring three in half an hour — “against an opponent of this quality,” as Enrique pointed out — is something else entirely, something beyond impossible.