Press pause, and it isn't really possible. Modric stands outside the penalty area, on the edge of the D. Rodrygo is just to the right of him, but that's not the ball he wants to play ... although he lets the defence think it is. It's Karim Benzema he's trying to reach. The trouble is, there are six blue shirts between him and his destination; a seventh nearby, too. Have a good look, trace a line with your finger. Take your time. Nah, can't see it.
Press play again. Oh, there it is. Through Presnel Kimpembe's legs. In the middle of all that, when you can't ask everyone if they wouldn't mind just standing still for a minute while you work this out, when all around people are losing their heads, Modric saw the pass and played it. And then: pandemonium. With one flick of the foot, he had taken out seven men.
Again.
Modric had done that before, too. Nine seconds before.
Freeze the frame and it's hard enough. Now imagine doing that in real time, having just run 80 yards. Because it's not just the last pass -- it's the first pass too. It's everything.
Real Madrid's second goal on Wednesday started with Modric winning the ball just outside his own team's penalty area, and it ended with him passing it on from just outside Paris Saint-Germain's. There's something cartoonish about the scene as he sets off, dashing between Neymar and Lionel Messi, leaving them behind first. Like this is a race and they're the starting gate, everyone running in the same direction. There are four blue shirts on Modric trying to keep up, another just behind and two more fractionally to his left. It's 7-on-1, and none of them can catch him.
Modric knows this means that someone, somewhere, is on his own. It's just math. He releases Vinicius Junior to the left, everyone drawn to him now bypassed. The ball goes through Presnel Kimpembe, legs open, and Madrid are away. Vinicius runs and Modric does too, ready to join in again. Forty metres, 50 metres, 60 metres. When the Brazilian puts on the brakes, surrounded by PSG's rapidly retreating players, defensive positions taken up again, he returns it to Modric.
Poor Kimpembe; it's happening again. Poor Achraf Hakimi, playing Benzema onside. Madrid's No. 9 is standing alone. But still, that ball shouldn't be getting through there to him.
Commentating the game for British television, Glenn Hoddle sums it up nicely, the awe expressed in the simplicity of what he says: "That was great, wannit?" Then he adds: "That nutmeg pass is absolutely beautiful."
Hoddle knows a thing or two about passes, and about running with the ball: He understands vision, touch, genius. While you're spending the day watching Modric videos on YouTube -- and what better way to spend it, although maybe turn the volume down -- take a little detour to look some of them up. Put it this way: The day former Tottenham Hotspur player Ossie Ardiles wanted to underline how good he thought Modric was, he could come up with no better way than likening him to his ex-Spurs teammate Hoddle.
That was 11 years ago, which brings us to the other thing. Luka Modric is 36. Not long ago you wondered if it was over, which was natural; time was against him. Except that time is always on Modric's side, bent to his will. Madrid weren't sure he would, or should, continue when his contract ran out in 2021. He could have felt the same with nothing left to prove: Ballon d'Or won, three consecutive Champions Leagues, too, football completed. It was time to rejuvenate the team.
But he was so good that it was a no-brainer. Madrid had to ensure that he continued, with any succession plans put on hold. There had been no fuss, no noise and no whining about getting only a one-year deal, just the performances that would see him get offered another one, all in good time. On Wednesday, it wasn't just that pass, which might not even be your favourite moment. Maybe the slide tackle on Messi is, a moment that says something as well. For all the class, there is a competitor, too.
