And yet Rodgers, from a pragmatic, objective and entirely joyless perspective, was absolutely right to rest his players for that game at the Bernabeu. We all know how it works: Champions League football means money and prestige. With money and prestige, you can attract and remunerate better players, while retaining the ones you already have. Once that lucrative group stage football has been confirmed, it's arguably more important to qualify for next season's Champions League than it is to actually win it.
You want good new players in the summer; you don't want your heroes to leave. It's awful, it's sickening, it's anti-sport, but hey, that's modern football. Rodgers was just trying to play the long game.