It was vintage Kante at Stamford Bridge, using his game awareness and athleticism to blunt Atletico, as well as helping us launch attacks by breaking lines and opening up space.

Many pundits declared it one of his very best showings in a Chelsea shirt, and unsurprisingly UEFA, and indeed Blues fans on social media, picked him as their star man on a night when so many shone.

‘It’s an honour,’ said Kante upon receiving the trophy.

‘First I am happy we qualified for the quarter-final. To get this award is a plus, but the principal was to qualify and we played a very good match.

‘Atletico are a good team, well organised. It was about keeping possession and stopping any rapid attacks. We didn’t let them have any counter-attacks. Our success in the first leg made us think about the good situations and meant we were confident in our approach to this match.

‘We played two good matches and we deserved qualification.’

We now have a quarter-final draw to look forward to tomorrow, and we will also discover our potential semi-final opponents. Can we repeat our heroics of 2012? Kante is feeling confident.

‘Yes, everything is possible! We know what we need, and if it works out just fine then that would be very, very good!

‘But we have to take match after match, and I hope we can stay in the competition as long as possible.’