Champions League winners Liverpool have lift-off, while Tottenham are at a crossroads
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Liverpool won the competition for the sixth time with a 2-0 victory over Tottenham
As Liverpool and Tottenham's supporters made their way out of Madrid at dawn on Sunday, the emotions were as contrasting as they had been hours earlier at the vast Estadio Wanda Metropolitano.
Liverpool's followers were jaded but exultant at Barajas Airport after a 2-0 win that made the club kings of Europe for the sixth time, while the Spurs fans reflected on an historic first Champions League final appearance that ended in bitter disappointment.
When the celebrations subside, which may take a while, and the hurt eases, this night of searing heat on the outskirts of Spain's capital will provide a defining moment for Liverpool and Spurs.
Crossroads for Tottenham
Let's start with Spurs as so much has been devoted, justifiably, to Liverpool's latest ascent to European football's peak.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino took Spurs to the final despite operating at a clear financial disadvantage to his rivals. He and his players battled the odds to escape a group containing Barcelona, Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven before beating fancied Borussia Dortmund, favourites Manchester City and Ajax on the way to the final.
Spurs, with a magnificent new stadium, must now grasp the opportunity in front of them.
Spending has been tight while a £1bn stadium has taken shape on the site of their old White Hart Lane home, but there now has to be financial backing for a manager who has not been near the market since signing Lucas Moura from Paris St-Germain for £23m in January 2018.
It also means Pochettino stopping the dance around his own future and clearing the confusion about his intentions.
Pochettino has provided a masterclass in extracting the maximum from relatively limited resources this season, but his squad needs strengthening in all departments.
Christian Eriksen's future is still a subject for debate, Dele Alli was desperately poor in Madrid and seems to have lost sparkle, while Kieran Trippier - by his own honest admission - has had a poor season.
Dele Alli's form is under scrutiny after a poor performance in Madrid; he was substituted in the 82nd minute
Adding quality will also signal to stellar talents such as Harry Kane and Son Heung-min that getting to Madrid, despite the pain it brought, is the start of something big.
Liverpool suffered similar agony in losing three finals under manager Jurgen Klopp before Saturday's breakthrough victory and now a whole new vista is opening up before them.
Tottenham must look at how the Merseysiders have approached it; an outstanding manager has been backed with smart and ambitious spending.
Spurs have so many of the building blocks in place under Pochettino, who signed a five-year contract in May 2018, but it is also time for the Argentine to put to bed the questions about his own future.
When Klopp was asked about a tenuous link with Juventus, his colourful, eight-letter response left no room for doubt that he was staying at Liverpool.
Pochettino has left doors open, perhaps to ensure chairman Daniel Levy supports him this summer, and this has led to uncertainty.
Like Klopp, he is revered by his own supporters, a modern manager who made their dreams reality.
Spurs must seize the chance they now have to build on what they have achieved.
Lift-off for Liverpool?
In recent years, Liverpool have lost elite names who clearly loved life at Anfield but felt the lands of greater opportunity lay elsewhere.
Fernando Torres joined Chelsea for £50m in January 2011 while Luis Suarez moved to Barcelona for £75m in July 2014. Raheem Sterling completed a £49m switch to Manchester City a year later and Philippe Coutinho went to the Nou Camp for £142m in January 2018.
As Liverpool's latest cast of stars left Madrid on Sunday, the only departure lounge they were interested in was the one taking them back to a city, the red half at least, in the grip of frenzied celebrations.
Klopp has assembled a team containing 'A-listers' that their European rivals would love to get their hands on.
You can list pretty much a full side but here are just a few - brilliant goalkeeper Alisson, full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson, Virgil van Dijk - arguably the world's finest defender - and a front three of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.
Virgil van Dijk's performances this season led to him being voted PFA Players' Player of the Year
If Liverpool announced any of those players were for sale, there would be a queue of clubs snaking along Anfield Road.
Liverpool will not be doing that - and none of those players show the slightest desire to head for the exit route.
Some will see Coutinho's struggles at Barcelona and reason the grass is not always greener elsewhere.
But the bottom line is that these players love life under Klopp at Liverpool, and have now claimed the biggest European club trophy of them all. They would rightly question whether they would improve their lot elsewhere.
Klopp himself would walk into the world's biggest jobs should they become available - it should be a source of eternal regret to Manchester United that an unconvincing sales pitch left him unmoved when he was considered as successor to David Moyes in 2014 - but he has not the slightest interest.
If life was good on Saturday for Liverpool on Saturday - a team who lost only one Premier League game in finishing second to champions Manchester City - imagine how it felt on Sunday when they brought the famous old trophy back to Anfield for the sixth time.
If Liverpool's rivals did not exactly fear their potential renaissance, they will have known the vast potential waiting to be released once they got it right - which they now have, quite spectacularly.
Liverpool have everything in place to replicate their real glory era, although the Manchester City juggernaut will prove difficult to shift.
Klopp's team are not going anywhere. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Saturday's Champions League triumph will usher in a glorious new Anfield era.