If not quite impossible, this was always mission improbable for Liverpool.
Now their remaining task this season is to ensure their departure from the Champions League is only temporary.
The Reds saw attempts to complete an unlikely European comeback hampered by the shortcomings that have held them back at Anfield all season.
That’s not to say Jurgen Klopp’s side didn’t deserve more from an evening that was part encouraging, part frustrating but, in terms of the final outcome, wholly disappointing.
Liverpool played well, arguably their best display of a fitful campaign on their own turf.
But, not for the first time, they were thwarted by poor finishing, the wrong final ball or impressive goalkeeping.
Maybe there’s something in the old adage that supporters at Anfield help suck the ball into the net.
Had this been played inside a packed stadium, there’s every chance Liverpool would have further turned the screw during a dominant first half in which Real Madrid were teetering on the brink.
Fans, though, don’t supply the finishing touch. They don’t execute the final ball. And they haven’t been here, at least in great number, for more than 12 months now.
Indeed, it wasn’t that Real, again missing a number of key players in the back line, defended particularly well, although they were reliant on some several blocks at key times.
Liverpool did the hard yards by fashioning opportunities only to fritter them away. Mohamed Salah. Gini Wijnaldum. Roberto Firmino. It went on.
In isolation, it may just go down as one of those nights. But this has become one of those seasons.
Tempting, then, as it may be to draw a line under this Liverpool vintage, it cannot be the end. At least not yet.
In terms of effort and quality up to the final third, there was little with which to quibble, with this tie ultimately lost during that harrowing first half in Madrid last week.
And as they trudged disconsolately from the Anfield turf with Real’s celebrations echoing around the empty stadium, Liverpool can take heart from their performance.
That top-four place remains an attainable target. If Klopp’s side can maintain this standard between now and the end of May, they will have every chance of making their absence from the Champions League a short one.
