One or two days to recover, said Pep Guardiola. It seemed very optimistic, after such an ordeal.
Guardiola must hope his team can pick themselves up to go again, but in reality he faces arguably the biggest challenge of his managerial career galvanising Manchester City for Sunday.
Newcastle are the opposition. A test, on current form. Then it is Wolves, on Wednesday. Tricky, Wolves. Since 2017-18, City’s record against them is played eight, won five, lost two, drawn one.
There are not many teams City have failed to beat in almost half their recent meetings. Across the same period, City’s record versus Arsenal is played 13, won 12.
And as we are often reminded, there are no easy games in the Premier League. Certainly, there are no easy games when a team has just had its heart ripped out by Real Madrid.
It is not just the energy City expounded in the Bernabeu Stadium that may affect them, but the emotion.
Pep Guardiola faces the toughest challenge of his career in lifting Manchester City off the floor
City stars were devastated after being knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid
But with a Premier League title on the line, Guardiola has to get his players emotionally ready
Guardiola must fear that some of his players won’t be able to blithely shrug off their colossal disappointment and regroup for the trophy that remains.
Might Madrid, in securing their place in the Champions League final, have also gifted the Premier League title to the team they will face that day, Liverpool?
Jurgen Klopp has achieved much in his life. Arguably his greatest triumph, though, was cajoling his Liverpool players to maintain their ferocious intensity the year after losing the title by a single point to City. Liverpool lost one game and came second.
They had the league’s best defence and scored 89 goals. Their 97 points would have won the league in any other season, bar two.
Yet Klopp not only drove his team to win the Champions League that year, he took…