Pep Guardiola insisted Manchester City's future remains bright even as Real Madrid ended their Uefa Champions League hopes for a fourth time in the last five years.
City always faced an uphill task in the second leg of the last-16 tie after their 3-0 defeat at the Bernabeu last week.
However, the situation got more difficult 20 minutes into the second leg when captain Bernardo Silva was sent off for stopping Vinicius Junior's shot with an elbow on the line, with the Brazilian scoring the penalty.
Erling Haaland pulled one back – his first goal since February 17 – but despite a strong display City could not get back into the match.
City's Jeremy Doku and Rayan Ait-Nouri and Real Madrid's Federico Valverde and Vinicius had second-half goals chalked off before Vinicius completed his brace with the last kick of the game from the edge of the six-yard box in the 93rd minute. Madrid completed a 5-1 aggregate win.
“The players have always shown spirit,” Guardiola said. “But after 3-0 and after 4-0 and 10 against 11, it was impossible.
“But the future will be bright and next season we'll be back.”
Guardiola lamented the fact City had to play most of the crucial second leg with just 10 men.
“I'm going to sleep and tomorrow let me challenge Madrid over 180 minutes 11 against 11. I wanted that feeling. That's all,” Guardiola said. “We are always really good but 10 against 11 for 75 minutes, if you are one or two up on aggregate ok, but when you are 4-0 down, it is more complicated.”
Guardiola said it was important to give the team undergoing transition some more time to settle in.
“Next season I don't know what happens but (Abdukodir) Khusanov, Rayan Cherki, it is the first time playing Champions League, Antoine Semenyo. It needs time,” he said.
“There's a lot of new players. But I saw many good things, we said 3-0 was almost impossible, but let's try it.”
Guardiola will now turn his attention to Sunday's League Cup final against Arsenal. On Tuesday, Arsenal's Eberechi Eze opened his Champions League account with a stunning goal as his team defeated Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 at home to reach the quarter-finals with a 3-1 aggregate victory.
“I don't know if I could dream of scoring a goal like that,” Eze, who had failed to score in his first eight Champions League appearances, said.
“It's a special goal, for sure I'm going to remember it for a long time, hopefully it's the first of many in the Champions League for me. I could be watching this one for a long time.”
PSG 'very precise' against Chelsea
Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique lauded his team's clinical performance as they completed a 3-0 win over Chelsea as the reigning European champions completed an 8-2 aggregate victory.
“We were very precise,” the Spaniard said. “We scored the first two goals very quickly and that was the key to the game.”
PSG raced into a 2-0 lead within 14 minutes after goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola. Substitute Senny Mayulu made it 3-0 in the 62nd minute.
“I think today we showed once again that we truly are a team that can play in different ways and which is always unpredictable for our opponents,” Luis Enrique added.
“Of course I am proud because you don’t expect that kind of result,” the Spaniard said.
Chelsea coach Liam Rosenior also lauded the attacking power of Luis Enrique's team.
“They were clinical in both games, shots from outside the box,” Rosenior said. “That’s the level we need to get to.”
