When they went their various ways the following morning, they could reflect that football's most essential elements had come out on top. Spain, at best a cautious pick for the title beforehand, had provided outstanding winners and unleashed two fresh superstars in their dazzling young wingers.
Supporters had travelled in unprecedented numbers and turned every match into its own vibrant universe, each one a festival of colour and noise. Might it have proved to be a correction point, an overwhelming signal that the club game's ever-worsening mammonism and pursuit of growth in service of a powerful few cannot hold?
Collection
[
|
...
]