Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola accepted blame for the lack of composure he said cost his team dearly in their 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League play-off.
City have fallen away from the high standards they have set during Guardiola's trophy-laden nine-year reign, with the leaking of late goals a repeated concern.
The Premier League champions have conceded eight times in the last 15 minutes of their last five Champions League games to also blow leads against Feyenoord and Paris Saint-Germain in the league phase.
This time it is likely to be terminal for their chances of reaching the last 16 as Carlo Ancelotti's holders head back to the Santiago Bernabeu in a commanding position for the second leg on February 19.
"I am not good enough to give the composure to the team to manage this situation," said Guardiola after Tuesday night's setback.
"The truth is we are not stable enough. It happened many times."
Erling Haaland had twice given City the lead at the Etihad, either side of Kylian Mbappe's equaliser for the Spanish giants.
But City were undone by a catalogue of defensive errors to throw away the lead in the closing stages.
Ederson compounded a poor clearance by parrying Vinicius Junior's shot into the path of Brahim Diaz to equalise.
Vinicius then took advantage of hesitant defending from Rico Lewis to race clear on goal and Jude Bellingham tapped home the Brazilian's miscued effort into an unguarded goal.
"After the 2-1, it happened like it happened this season many times against Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon, Brentford, Manchester United.
"In the end we gave it away ourselves and at this level it's so difficult. It's not the first time."
City defender John Stones said Guardiola had called for more accountability from the players ahead of the game.
"It's a feeling of anger and frustration," said Stones. "We need to see games out better. The manager said we need to take accountability for what we do on the pitch.
"We need to step up when these bad moments happen. Today we had a great opportunity to go to the Bernabeu with a 2-1 lead."
The sides are meeting for the fourth consecutive season in the Champions League.
Madrid have won two of the previous three ties with the winner on each occasion going on to lift the Champions League.
However, unlike previous visits to the Etihad, where City were in the ascendancy, this time Madrid had most of the chances.
Mbappe, Bellingham and Vinicius were all guilty of wasting them until the late plot twist.
"It was a very good performance from us. We have to be content with the result as well even though we had lots of opportunities," said Ancelotti.
"We didn't deserve to be 1-2 down. We were really dangerous but in the end the win is deserved."
Victory was even sweeter for the 15-time European champions as they travelled to Manchester without their entire first-choice defence.
"The four defenders, who never played together before, were able to play a good game because the team worked really well defensively," added Ancelotti.
"The more emergencies there are, the more this team sacrifices. I didn't think in this moment the team was capable to sacrifice like this."
PSG and Dortmund all but seal progress
Ousmane Dembele continued his hot goalscoring form as he netted twice for Paris Saint-Germain in an easy 3-0 win at fellow Ligue 1 side Brest on Tuesday.
Vitinha opened the scoring with a penalty awarded after a VAR review for a handball by Brest midfielder Pierre Lees-Melou.
Brest, playing an hour away in Guingamp because their own stadium does not meet Uefa requirements, twice went close to equalising.
Abdallah Sima powered a header against the post and Achraf Hakimi brushed the other upright when attempting to clear for a corner.
Dembele grabbed PSG's second on the stroke of half-time, firing a low shot past Marco Bizot at his near post after a slick team move.
The France international scored again with a deflected shot midway through the second half, giving him 18 goals in his last 11 games.
"Ousmane is full of confidence just now. He was good in 2024 and he is even better in 2025," said PSG coach Luis Enrique.
Elsewhere, Juventus won 2-1 at home to PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of their tie in Turin.
US international Weston McKennie put Juventus ahead in the first half before Ivan Perisic levelled for the Dutch side.
Samuel Mbangula scored from close range to win the game for Juventus in the 82nd minute.
Borussia Dortmund are on the cusp of the last 16 after winning 3-0 away to Sporting Lisbon.
Serhou Guirassy's header gave the German side the lead on 60 minutes and Pascal Gross turned in a second for last season's Champions League runners-up.
Karim Adeyemi's late third sealed a first win for new coach Niko Kovac, who was appointed at the end of January after the dismissal of Nuri Sahin.
