Let's preface this with an important disclaimer: Juventus lost to Bayern Munich on Wednesday in what will go down as one of the greatest, most exhilarating Champions League comebacks of all time. The Old Lady, so brilliant in the opening half at the Allianz Arena, was unable to maintain her 2-0 lead, ultimately falling 4-2 in extra time (and 6-4 on aggregate).
Related: Bayern Munich stages epic comeback to defeat Juventus in extra time
And yet, it would be criminal not to pay the appropriate respect to Alvaro Morata and Juan Cuadrado, the Juventus duo that combined to send a quarter of Bayern defenders into the afterlife en route to scoring what was a spellbinding goal that gets better every time you watch it.
Morata does the heavy lifting.
David Alaba is brushed aside, the Spanish attacker disregarding him the same way everyone at Barcelona ignores correspondence from the tax man.
Medhi Benatia should have simply stayed home. He could have provided the same effectiveness from his couch on this play.
Joshua Kimmich almost falls over after Morata dinks the ball around him.
If nothing else, the three men can all confide in Jerome Boateng, who knows a thing or two about having your soul taken from you and your honour crushed while millions point and laugh. A better therapist, they won't find.
The true shame, though, befell Bayern skipper Philipp Lahm. The same Philipp Lahm, by the way, who is the best full-back of the last decade; who skippered Germany to a World Cup crown; who has been described as a "football robot" by opposing managers.
This robot's mainframe needs a reboot after this slaughter.
It's actually quite impressive that the Bayern Munich grounds crew was able to install a Slip'N Slide right into the pitch without anybody noticing.
The most disheartening element of this, from Lahm's perspective, is that he genuinely thought he could make the type of brilliant tackle that has earned him plaudits so many times before. This would just be another notch on his belt, another highlight on his reel of inch-perfect interventions.
It all starts so perfectly for the German veteran. It all ends so terribly.
"I got this"
"Man, this is going to be such a brilliant block"
"Wait what's happening?"
"Does not compute"
"What has become of my life?"
In the end, the evisceration of these four men didn't cost Bayern Munich. Having Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Douglas Costa, Franck Ribery, and Kingsley Coman on the pitch at the same time can have that sort of impact, undoing the public humiliation of fellow teammates to the point where we only discuss the club's attacking exploits.
The Bavarian club, staring elimination in the face, scored three goals in 18 minutes against arguably the best defensive team in Europe. It's only right that the comeback gets the attention.
But we'd be remiss not to pay our respects to earlier events in the captivating contest. Morata and Cuadrado put some of the world's premier defenders on a collective poster, and that should never be forgotten.
