A north London team go to Spain, have a player sent off and barely touch the ball. Where have we seen that before? This was Barcelona-Arsenal redux, except that Spurs have another stage to go: a return leg, in which they can kiss goodbye to Europe and then concentrate on finishing fourth in the Premier League to avoid demotion to the Europa League.
At least Robin van Persie made it past half-time. Arsenal were still ahead in their tie against Real Madrid's enemies when he was dismissed for kicking the ball away. Peter Crouch, hardly a mad-dog tackler by trade, was off after 14 minutes for two over-eager challenges that will haunt him mercilessly. Imagine being Crouch as Spurs staggered back to the dressing room after this 4-0 crushing. Men of his height are not built to hide.
It will take a while for the consoling reality to sink in, but this has been a fine Champions League debut campaign for Harry Redknapp's team.
Barcelona's brilliance has distorted our sense of Madrid's quality. A £220m starting XI trounced one who cost £75m. Redknapp tried to even up the scores before this tie, calling Gareth Bale an £80m footballer just like Cristiano Ronaldo, who really was sold for that cosmic sum. To put the two lightning bolts on the same level was only a harmless accountancy game, but we know now how far Spurs are behindthe great powers.
A fiend grabbed hold of this script, inserting diabolical twists. First an ex-Arsenal striker, Emmanuel Adebayor, put Real Madrid ahead inside five minutes, then Crouch was dismissed for two bruising fouls when not quite a quarter of an hour had passed. Crouch as Nigel de Jong? That's a new one. Tottenham were off their axis.
As a big man trudged off, a big name decided he could have some fun. With the Londoners down to 10, Ronaldo jogged off the wing into the No10 position and the siege was laid. Adebayor scored again after half-time, Angel di María blasted one in from long range and Ronaldo himself finished the job off with a fourth, with three minutes left.
The crowd serenaded José Mourinho, who is now 6-0 up on Redknapp in their meetings. On Saturday, Mourinho's astonishing home unbeaten league record, which stretched back to 2002, was broken by Sporting Gijón, but the congregation were right behind him here. They need all their faith, all their unity, for a probable semi-final against Barcelona, by which time Spurs will have to be on a run of hot league results to keep their place in this competition.
Not that Bale accepted Tottenham's fate. No further confirmation was needed of his fighting qualities, but when he was restored to his best position at outside left he took the game to Madrid alone. When Aaron Lennon dropped out minutes before the kick-off, Redknapp switched Bale to the right to disrupt the Ronaldo-Marcelo partnership, with Luka Modric shunted to the left, which meant both Tottenham's best players started out of position.
Crouch's departure caused Jermaine Jenas to be moved to the right and Bale to swing back left, from where he attacked Sergio Ramos with gusto. The swift Wales winger had spoken of his eagerness to try new cultures, new footballing tests. Good for him. The downside was that he said it to AS, often seen as a semi-official Real Madrid newsletter.
In the build-up his future became a bigger issue than his present. Bale stood on the centre-circle an hour before kick-off, soaking in the energy of this prim, erect stadium, which lacks the crazy passion of Camp Nou but intimidates with its hauteur.
The Bale-Ronaldo head-to-head was a nonsense in the sense that it implied equality between a 26-year-old world player of the year who has fetched £92m in transfer fees and a 21-year-old who moved from Southampton to Spurs for £5m and is still learning his business. Ronaldo has won the Champions League, three Premier League titles, an FA Cup and a Club World Cup. Bale's medal collection is zilch.
All this is said not to disparage the most exciting wing man in the English game but to restore a sense of perspective to their clash in a game that left Spurs bereft, despite Bale's best efforts. He made no impact on the right but made up for it on the left, drawing a posse of Madrid defenders to his side with his first serious run. A sliding interception by Xabi Alonso stopped the gallop but two minutes later Bale was chesting the ball down, bursting into Real's penalty box and firing into the side netting. Moments before the interval he was taken out by Ramos, right in front of the Spurs dugout, and left the field groggy and limping.
Without this tenacity, this aggression, he would be another intermittent flash of light in a wide area. When his transfer value is assessed high worth will be placed on his courage. The scouts will remember his contribution here, but Spurs will opt for amnesia. If the memory had a delete button, they would be jabbing it hard.
